97 TJ 5spd stuck in reverse

[WagoneerXJ]

Went to back up my gf's jeep and the shifter won't come out of reverse at all. Short of kicking it, how the hell do I get it out into neutral? Also I should mention recently it's started grinding sometimes when downshifting to 3rd or uplifting to 5th.......

[Moezer]

sounds like a new tranny is in order

[WagoneerXJ]

Crap, not what I wanted to hear. Would a 99 XJ ax15 work in it?

[yellowjeep101]

How old is the clutch and pressure plate? Slave cylinder? Throwout bearing? All those are easy fixes that could cause those problems.

[BUKI]

How old is the clutch and pressure plate? Slave cylinder? Throwout bearing? All those are easy fixes that could cause those problems.

weeelllll.  i wouldnt call  ALL those easy

[yellowjeep101]

Okay, well the slave is easy... Sometimes, and the rest gets don't in one shot.

[WagoneerXJ]

I'm not sure on the age of the parts. Probably original. Jeep has 166,000 kms on it. We got it from an older couple who didn't drive it much and it sat in a barn alot haha

[WagoneerXJ]

Also the clutch master is full of fluid. That's all I had time to check on so far

[jandh]

I have just finished suffering through a tranny stuck in third.  My case was because one of the 3 insert plates located on a gear fell out and happened just to jam me in third.  another problem I hear often is wrong fluid or other causes spinning or jamming a syncro gear.

Ax-15 - 1988-1991 input shaft to pilot are compatible(internal slave)
Ax-15 - 1992-1999 input shaft to pilot are compatible(external slave from 1994 and up)

you may need to change the bell housing, bearing cap and throwout bearing depending if you are running internal or external slave, but as I found out if you get a tranny not in your year group as above, you will need to change the pilot bearing to one that will have to be special ordered.

in my case I went from a 91 to a 94 and had to get a pilot bushing from a early 70's CJ - not easy to find

[frenchy]

Clutch, pressure plate, bearing should have nothing to do with it.
They could be all rusted and siezed together, you could physically weld them all together or remove them all. Still wouldn't cause transmission to stick in one gear.

Has proper fluid, topped up?
I'd remove the 4 top bolts for the shifter to get it back to neutral. Could be the internals or just the bushing under the shifter housing.

[Spinalguy]

Clutch, pressure plate, bearing should have nothing to do with it.
They could be all rusted and siezed together, you could physically weld them all together or remove them all. Still wouldn't cause transmission to stick in one gear.

Has proper fluid, topped up?
I'd remove the 4 top bolts for the shifter to get it back to neutral. Could be the internals or just the bushing under the shifter housing.

i will just say that my 97 TJ 5 speed twice let go of a release bearing and i remember no matter how hard i tried that was not coming out of 1st gear. i turned the jeep off in the intersection and using 2 hands got that thing finally out of 1st.
i pulled on it as hard as i could.
:shrug:

[frenchy]

i will just say that my 97 TJ 5 speed twice let go of a release bearing and i remember no matter how hard i tried that was not coming out of 1st gear. i turned the jeep off in the intersection and using 2 hands got that thing finally out of 1st.
i pulled on it as hard as i could.
:shrug:

Anything is possible I guess... but since you replace it and again had the same problem, perhaps something else was wrong.

Or, your upper body strength is equal to the Op's girlfriend 
Pics ?(of the girlfriend) 

[WagoneerXJ]

No pics! What is this, jeepin.com? LOL. I really don't want to have to pull the trans out....

[Spinalguy]

Anything is possible I guess... but since you replace it and again had the same problem, perhaps something else was wrong.

Or, your upper body strength is equal to the Op's girlfriend 
Pics ?(of the girlfriend) 

Once was at 18,000kms and the 2nd time was 74,000kms. After the 2nd time i drilled a hole into the bell housing big enough to fit the end of a garden hose in. After every wheelin trip, i flushed that thing. It went another 100,000 kms with no problems. Well, the motor gernaded at that point but...
 i thought it was OP that could not move it, not his gf? :laughing:

[yellowjeep101]

Personally I would try the the slave first, see if its functioning, there may be a way to test that before anything else. And if not sounds like your pulling the transmission, new one or not, get a brand new clutch kit, and do it all while the transmission is off. Can you put shift gears with the jeep off?