started up my grand Cherokee to let it warm up, went back out 10 minutes later and motor overheated. Head gasket blown, but real problem is put in reverse to put into garage and no reverse. Went in park it growls like it wants to go in reverse, put shifter into reverse and it free rolls. Put shifter into neutral and drove right into parking spot. What the hell happened to my transmission, could something have overheated. Tranny shop wants $400 to look at it..... any help would be appreciated.... 1999 Grand Cherokee Larado 4.0

 

Sounds like your gear selector is 1 slot off. Try taking it out of park but not all the way in to reverse and see if reverse engages. Sounds like reverse is neutral and neutral is now drive. Not sure if 1999 is electronic or manual linkage so it may be the linkage came out of adjustment or if electronic maybe that component is bad.

Miles

 

Has cable linkage, climbed underneath everything seems to move free. Thinking about taking off cable and manually moving linkage to see if this makes a difference. I want to get tranny figured out before attacking the head gasket, to see if it is even worth fixing. Jeep has 165,000 miles and ran great up to this problem.

 

After doing two days of research on the computer, could it be a possible transmission sensor or something electrical, do to when head gasket blew, excessive pressure in coolant lines blew upper radiator hose and dumped anti-freeze all over engine bay. still haven't taken linkage apart to check that, due to New York snow storm, but that's next.