austinjeepbill

Hi, I am new to forum. I used to own a 1996 Cherokee Sport 4x4: I bought it for $5,000 with 50,000 miles in 2002 -- it was probably so cheap because it was turquoise, but I have no shame -- and I sold it for 2007 for the same $5,000. Best vehicle I ever owned.

Anyhow the kids at the high school know that I once owned and worked on my own Jeep (I live in one of those school districts where NO ONE works on their cars), so anytime they have a problem, they bring it over to me, and I can never say no to a kid that actually wants to work on their car. Ugh.

My latest helping out project has now been in my garage for 2 weeks now, and I need some help getting it out.

Here's the situation.

A kid with a plain-jane 2002 Cherokee 4x4 dropped his rear driveshaft -- why he didn't recover it I'll never know.

Anyhow, after driving it around in 4H -- basically making it into a front wheel drive SUV -- for maybe 50 miles, he finally went and got a driveshaft from a junkyard: from a Jeep GRAND Cherokee, under the mistaken belief that it must be the same as for a Cherokee.

He wedged that Grand Cherokee driveshaft into his Cherokee, and when he drove it, the U-Joints clicked, so he stopped, took off the the rear driveshaft, and then drove it over to my house.

We put in the correct driveshaft, but now we can't get the transfer case out of 4H (the front U-Joints now "click", but my 4x4 Cherokee also did that on dry pavement, so I am not worried about that -- should I be?).

The kid really leaned on the transfer case shift lever and bent the mechanism, so we took it out and pounded it back into shape, but it still not shifting out of 4H.

Is the transfer case hosed because of driving it in 4H without a rear drive load or because he jammed that wrong driveshaft in?

Or is it just "stuck"? If so, how to unstick?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

HudsonN

XJs were made from 84-01. No such thing as a 2002 Cherokee.

What rear shaft did you put in the thing? XJs with a 8.25 rear axle and a D35 rear axle have different length shafts.

I'd say he just messed the transfer case linkage up pretty bad. Take the linkage off the case and try shifting the paddle on the case with an adjustable.

I think it's a 9/16" locknut holding the paddle onto the transfer case, but i could be wrong. Remove that, remove the paddle, and then put an adjustable on it. Attempt to turn the adjustable up in the air to put it back into 2H.

Lowrange2

What else have you tried?

If you can't shift it manually without the linkage I'd say the case needs to come apart.

austinjeepbill

sorry, you are right. It is a 1998, not 2002.

I have actually not played with the linkage, only the kid that actually owns it has.

So the linkage just moves in a counterclockwise direction? There is no deflection along the axis of the linkage required? I seem to recall on my '96 that you had to both move the transfer case lever and pull it to one side (toward the driver?) in order to get it to move from one setting to the other.

HudsonN

That "deflection" you speak up is due to the shift gate - not the actual transfer case.

Just unbolt the linkage and paddle from the TCase and try swifting it with an adjustable.

Ill post pictures when I get home.

austinjeepbill

Thanks, pictures would help a lot.

By "adjustable", do you mean a crescent wrench, lock jaws or something else?

Should it move easily, with a lot of leverage? Can/should I put a pipe over the adjustable if needed for more leverage :-)

razor02097

For the love of Christ do not use a pipe


An adjustable means adjustable wrench/spanner... the wrench that you can adjust with the worm screw. It should not be difficult to shift the T case.

Depending on the load exerted on the T case during the front wheel drive escapade damage may have occurred. The T case front drive was never designed to drive the whole weight of the vehicle long distances. It would be helpful to know what model T case you are dealing with? 231? 242? It will say on a round tag mounted to the T case. Probably covered in gunk as they usually all are...take a rag and wipe off the rear of the t case

Nathan9Mile

I would bet the tcase is junk just for the simple fact if he drove around with no rear driveshaft, it would have leaked all the fluid out unless he has a sye(slip yoke eliminator) installed. I would still try what everyone said take the linkage off and try moving it. Also if you do get it freed up check the fluid

austinjeepbill

Thanks. Can you tell me which way to turn the TC shifter spindle to move it to 2H? Counterclockwise? Clockwise?

We flushed and refilled the xfer case. About 1 1/2 quarts came out, which is what Haynes says the capacity is, so if he burned up the TC, it doesn't seem it would have been because of a lack of Dexcron/Mercron in it.

And I was just kidding about the pipe, though I did stop the kid right before he tried to use a bottle jack and a piece of pipe to move it.

I'll get the case model once I get home and post it.

razor02097

If it is a 1998 it probably has a tailshaft seal so it probably didn't leak the fluid out.

Since you are stuck in 4hi it won't matter which way you pull... one way goes 4lo the other 2WD. It sounds like either the linkage is FUBAR or the T case is FUBAR... It should shift regardless of intent or mode it is in. The linkage is sprung so when you shift between 2WD and 4hi you are essentially putting a bunch of spring pressure on the shift forks to move the parts.

Lowrange2

With no yoke it'd still leak.

austinjeepbill

Hey guys, it's a 231 model transfer case per the tag.


Still haven't gotten under the vehicle to try and manually move the shifter directly from the transfer case spindle -- there's a skid plate in the way that I need to take off first. Will try to do it tonight.

Any other thoughts?

What about get the car up top speed a bit in 4H and then shifting it into neutral to see if I can get the front and rear shafts "synched"? Does this make sense?

4Mudders

Like everyone else said, disconnect the linkage, and manually shift the transfer case. Should be fairly easy. Who knows whats wrong, why risk further damage by driving around like it is?

It can be a PITA to pop the rod off the arm, but I just use a long heavy duty screwdriver or pry bar.

austinjeepbill

Message received. I'll remove the kid's skid plate and then try to manually shift it tonight and then post an update.

BTW, I am very motivated to get this resolved as every day this kid's Cherokee is in the garage is another day my restored 911 isn't.

salad

Have you gotten the axles up on stands yet? If there's any binding (probably) from being in 4H all the time you're going to need to release it. The NP231 should shift into neutral easily once you get it up in the air.

If the linkage from the handle in the cab is pooched then you can shift it directly with that arm. Sort of like this