Alright, quick backstory... '98 Sport with an AX-15 that wouldn't hold 1st gear. It would violently jump out of gear if I tried to use it from a stand still. Every other gear worked fine but 1st never felt right.

So from what I read I need a rebuild... get the full kit from Southwest Gear and proceed to change all my bearings and synchros. Everything seems to go smoothly and I get it back in the jeep and fill it with NAPA GL-4 gear oil. It works awesome for the first drive around the block, seems like I fixed it!

So now it's been about a week since the rebuild and it's really hard to shift into first and second and it's jumped out of 1st twice now, I'm pissed!! I go ahead and change out the oil to Redline MT-90 thinking that might be it but now it's been 2 days since the change out and it's still acting up!! And it seems like it's getting worse!

An interesting thing is when I just drained the NAPA fluid there was a considerable amount of brass in the fluid... could I have trashed my synchros again in 2 drives?!?!

I'm kinda freaking cause I need to get this drivable asap for my wife because I'm leaving for a while and I'm not sure what else to check. Thanks for any ideas!

 

Okay, not to deride your tech capability, perchance, during a re-assembly function you put a bearing/gear/thrust in the case in reverse of what it should have been? I have no idea as to the detail of teardown you went through, so forgive me. is shift tines aligned correct? (the links feeding the gear shift stalk?)

I will look at breakdown of xmission and get back if you have more info, I do wish I could be of more help..

best of luck sir,,,I will get back to you.

cpnwrench

 

Thank you very much, I followed a rebuild thread by Mad Max on JeepForum (http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f12/m...build-1032480/) and it was pretty clear... I never touched the shift rods and everything went back in the same way triple checked. The weird thing is that the same problem is basically there.. almost like it doesn't quite shift into 1st. I also replaced the shifter bushing but not the little plastic tip, it seemed fine, maybe I should have?

 

doh!


also, dumb dumb question...shift forks worn? too much slop, causing initial problem?

i know dumb, just asking

cpnwrench

 

The shift forks seemed fine, although to be honest I didn't feeler gauge them. But they fit nice.

 

Hang......there is a wear limit on them, the shift forks that is.

shop manual has specs...wish I had one, could ref ya the criteria.

again, just my opinion, ( we all know what thats like!)

good luck, sorry couldn't be more assistance!

cpnwrench

 

remove shifter boots see if issue still there mine would do this the shifter boot was stiff thru years of sun making it hard

 

My shifter boot feels nice and soft but yeah it's like it can't quite click in. What about that little plastic cap on the very bottom of the shifter shaft? It seemed fine but do those wear?