WTF happened to 5th gear?

Forgot to mention...it's the '95 Wrangler, 4 cyl, 5 speed.

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLT 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep YJ Rio Grande ASE Certified Master Auto Tech + L1 TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51

Bill, No noise at all. It's like 5th gear isn't even there. The stick will move in and out of that position like it isn't even moving anything in the trans.

I have a brand new 24'x36' shop, so at least I don't have to lay in the dirt to pull the tranny. Unfortunatly, I can't use the shop until they finish putting the roof on it which should be tomorrow or Tue.

Good thing the weather forcast for this week says I can ride the bike to work.

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLT 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep YJ Rio Grande ASE Certified Master Auto Tech + L1 TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51

That's what I'm hoping happened. It'd be nice if something happened to one of my vehicles that didn't cost an arm and a leg to fix, for a change.

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLT 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep YJ Rio Grande ASE Certified Master Auto Tech + L1 TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51

I owned a Honda Accord (my brother in law drives it now) where 5th Gear simply stripped out. I can't remember the specifics, but I was driving along on the freeway and the engine was suddenly freewheeling while the car coasted to progressively lower speeds. The downshift into 4th provide the propulsion as expected, but 5th was simply gone. No noise, no warning, no nothing. Just an instantanious conversion from a 5 spd to a 4 spd.

Same thing happened to me in a 90 YJ, except I heard a little, "ting" noise just before it happened.

Ran it for a week using first through fourth, but would occasionally hear some metal sliding around.

I forget what the shop told me, but since the transmission had over 125,000 miles on it, I went with a new one.

......lou

This one's got around 175k on it. I suppose a master rebuild kit is not out of the question, although it's not given any trouble up to now, nor did it whine or make any funny noises before 5th let go.

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLT 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep YJ Rio Grande ASE Certified Master Auto Tech + L1 TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51

That 4 banger trans is the weakest one that Jeep ever used. You can put the

snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com,

I was talking to a guy at the local standard transmission rebuild shop. He, and I, believe that the snap ring at the back has come loose. He was showing me that this snap ring is also a shim, with several different thicknesses to control the end play of the 5th gear. He was also showing me how to get to it without removing the whole thing from the Jeep. He also told me not to tow anything larger than a jet ski. I've never had more than one motorcycle on my trailer, and mostly stay out of 5th(due to where I live)while I'm towing...so I really don't think that's much of a factor...my bet's on the 140k miles the thing had on it before I bought it. I guess if I want to move the bikes somewhere from now on I'll use the wife's Jeep...it's got a 6 cyl and the bigger trans. Or I could ride 'em.

The roof on my shop should be done today, judjing by the progress they made yesterday, so tonight I will get it up on stands and begin the repair process. Oh well, I had a leak under there I was going to get around to fixinig...I guess now's the time.

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLT 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep YJ Rio Grande ASE Certified Master Auto Tech + L1 TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51

When my Honda blew 5th gear, the shop guy said pretty much the same thing. The gear cluster was actually outside the case of the trans under a stamped steel cover. The trouble was the gear was worn smooth, and the teeth were inside the trans. Sorry for the bad news, hope your troubles turn ouot to not be as bad as mine, but they problably will be.

You have the Peugot trans, and it sucks. It is not worth repairing, really. Now is the time to swap out some parts and make it better.

Yeah, if I hadn't spent every spare cent I had on my new shop, I might upgrade...as it is, at least I have a nice building, with a concrete floor to lay on while I repair what I've got. If I ever get to it. We've been having a heat wave down here, and by the time I spend 9 hours working in a 100 degree dealership shop, then 90 minutes on the bike riding home, when I hit the front door and the 72 degree house, all I want to do is take a shower and down a beer or two. After that, who wants to go out and work on some old greasy, broken Jeep? Oh well, I'll be OK as long as the rain holds off.

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLT 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep YJ Rio Grande ASE Certified Master Auto Tech + L1 TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51

Heh! I blew the BA 10/5 in mine and it was cheaper to buy a rebuilt AX15 with all the necessary pieces to do the swap than it was to rebuild that Puegot POS.

I can relate to the temp thing, tho. Blew an alternator the other day passing through Salina, KS with 95+ on the thermometer and decided to let a local mechanic earn his pay rather than crawling under in that temp!

On Fri, 09 Jul 2004 22:52:01 -0500, Old Crow wrote:

Well, it only took me two weeks to get to fixing this, but it's done.

Turns out it was indeed the snap ring on the back of the main shaft. When that breaks, it spits the gear onto the unsplined portion of the shaft, and 5th gear goes away. This can be fixed without pulling the whole trans, but the tailshaft housing is a bit tricky to get off. First, of course, you remove the t/case(support the trans when you pull the skid plate). To remove the tailshaft housing you have to remove the detent springs on either side of the shifter(don't cross them, as one is stiffer than the other). Then you remove the shift tower and the bolt that goes through the shift fork into the rail. Then remove the plug in the back of the trans and pull the shift rail out along with the shift fork. On the passenger side of the trans there is a Torx bolt that has a spring and a detent ball behind it. Remove that and the tail shaft housing will now come off in your hands. The snap ring was in two pieces, but the magnet in the drain plug had captured both pieces, so no big deal. The snap ring is also a shim to control end play of the 5th gear, so I took the old pieces with me when I went to get a new one. The guy at the tranny shop mic'ed the pieces and got me the right one, since the letter marking that the factory puts on the ring was gone from my old one. Got a new seal for the tailshaft and a gasket to go between the tranny and the housing. Total cost of parts: $5, Not sure how much I paid for fluid yet(got it on my account at work), but it takes 4 quarts, so it was probably more for the fluid than the parts.

My Jeep has been sitting for two weeks, with the top down because of the nice weather, and since I got it fixed on Friday it's done nothing but rain.

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLT 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep YJ Rio Grande ASE Certified Master Auto Tech + L1 TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51