s14unimog

So get this. About 3 weeks ago my third gear started grinding on me. It wouldn't always keep you out but it was definitely audible if you did get it in there. The ****ty thing is that once ya did get in there, man you were good; cruise in it all day, no problem. So I decide to try the little stuff first. I dumped the fluids and topped her off with some Amsoil 75w-90 GL-4. No change. So I went a little further, shifter bushing; it could be cracked or damaged? Nope. Same symptoms.

What did I do after that? Bought some new syncros, some seals, some bearings, some more fluids and rebuilt that sucker. After a long weekend of degreasing, hunching over a press, heating bearings, pulling gears, etc... I finally get that puppy back together; quite proud of myself too. Anyways, I "bench" shifted it before I got everything back together and it worked great, so back in everything went. Then I set out for the all telling test drive.....

SAME *****! 3rd is STILL GRINDING!!! WTF....

Can anyone suggest a next step for me? My next thought I guess is to replace the bushing the shifter actually sits on, not the one at the very bottom inside the shift arm (already replaced that one), but the one that supports the pivoting action of the shifter its self. My thought is that since I can throw it up there, with some grinds of course, that possibly its just not pushing the rail far enough... I don't know.. I just want my third gear back

Diesel

Linkage? Fork? Hows your clutch? Is the gear loose or damaged?

s14unimog

Which linkage? The shift rails movement is restricted by the detent *****. The tolerances I noted about the shift fork applied to the diameter, not a forward backwards tolerance, but I'll recheck the service manual encase I missed something. My clutch is great. No issues. The TOB is well greased, shows no signs of excessive wear and the slave works just as well; the same can be said for the pilot bearing. I'm sure they're not related. None of the gears are "loose" or damaged. I put loose in parenthesis because the gears on the counter-shaft are machined features of the shaft and the ones on the main shaft ride on needle bearing assemblies.

s14unimog

So I spoke with a buddy of mine that has rebuilt a few AX-15's and a few more AX-5's. He said it was pretty common that the larger 1-and-some-odd inch bushing that the shifter pivots on to wear out in the AX-5 and cause the shifter to drop further into the transmission.

Has anyone heard of that?

I called Jeep and apparently for the AX15 you must buy the entire shifter assembly and it costs around $260 and isn't available; so that's helpful.