Hey gang-

My kid's '94 ZJ Ltd 4L 4wd has learned a new trick...

It drives fine in forward (D), and runs through all the forward gears, but won't shift into reverse! As you can imagine, this forces him to be very creative and selective when mapping his routes or choosing a parking position

It also stays in drive when shifted into neutral or park, although park locks it up and won't allow forward progress.

What should I be looking at here?

Thanks SO much in advance- his budget is severely limited, so any "value-engineering" ideas would be very appreciated!

 

Pull the pan and check for debris, sounds like you will probably find broken snap ring pieces and possibly some metal shavings. To confirm this guess try this, shift trans down to manual 1st gear, get up some vehicle speed and let off throttle, does engine drop down to idle speed like its in neutral or do the engine speed slow down with vehicle speed (engine braking)?

A very common problem to happen with these transmissions is the O/D-direct clutch snap ring breaking, pieces of this ring will usually find their way into the bottom of the trans pan. If you are confident the rest of the trans is in good shape you can replace the O/D housing off the back of the trans and have it rebuilt/repaired and not have to drop the whole trans.