Hello,

I have a stock 2001 Jeep Cherokee XJ Classic 4wd auto transmission. I pushed my XJ down my slightly inclined driveway in neutral this morning to clear space in my driveway. I did not start the car, I just put the key in and popped it into neutral, and back into park when I stopped. It was parked at an extremely slight incline towards the front of the car. I came back a little while later, and I could not get the shifter to shift out of Park.

I have tried to search on the forums and read up on this and watch videos, but from what I can see under the dash I do not have anything that looks like the shifter interlock doohickey to try removing, I can still depress the shifter button on the T-handle, the tranny fluid level is good, and my brake lights work just fine.

Any suggestions? I am going to try and get under it tomorrow to check if anything in the transmission linkage is binding. I will also try to take apart the T-handle to see if it is engaging the mechanism. I am learning as I am going because I just bought this XJ a few weeks ago and this is my first one, on top of being my first automatic that I have worked on in a long time.

Thanks in advance!

***Edit: as I am trying to watch more videos about this, maybe I need to look deeper under the dash or remove the inspection panel under the steering wheel to find the transmission interlock connector.***

 

Welp, after fiddling around a little bit I found the transmission interlock thingy. I disconnected it, but no luck. Then I figured something could be wrong with the shifter T-handle, and sure enough even though I could press the button, it was not pushing down the plunger. I removed the T-handle and actuated the plunger by hand and I was able to shift. I reconnected the transmission interlock connector and was still able to shift, so it was the T-handle after all!

I look at it this way... Purely being able to ask the question on this forum was enough to help me figure out the issue!

 

Mine does slip upwards a bit every now and then and can't shift out of park. I just give it a good whack back down and we're off again.

Glad you figured it out.