Well I went ahead and installed the Rugged Rudge SYE and Tom Woods Shaft that I bought from Rough Country the last two days and everything went it well but now I find that I can't engage 4WD and I'm stuck in 2WD. Not a huge disaster since 95% of the time I drive in 2WD but I'd like to have the capability of 4WD.

I hear tell that it has something to do with the tuning fork??? Not sure if that is true but any help I can get with this and as much detail as possible would come in handy when I feel like getting under there again to fix this little issue.

It honestly took me the full two day to get it installed but that has more to do with the lack of proper tools and going in and out of the house to look up more details on the transfer case (NP231 J).

 

did you cut the shifter shaft for the shorter tail cone

 

Ive done two from rugged ridge and havent had to cut the shifter rod. From what i read the only time you have to cut would be from a early 90's wrangler 231 tcase. Or maybe if you have a super short SYE...but ive always gone with the standard one.

 

Nope. Didn't know I had too.

 

I can't even move the shifter into any gear. It remains in 2WD and when I attempt to shift to 4HI it just won't budge.

 

Have you tested shifting the TC after you installed the SYE? Could it be a shifter rail getting stuck somehow.

 

There really isn't much to the inside of the transfer case. My guess would be the shift rail inside (has a cut out where the shifter forks go into), sounds like it isn't in correctly. I've installed various SYE's (mostly into Cherokees) and never had to cut any of the shifter rods

 

I just installed an Advance Adapters SYE in my XJ last weekend. I had to cut 1.5" off the end of the HI-LO range shift rail for it to fit in the shorter tail cone. I actually put the plug that came with the kit in place of my vacuum switch that locks and unlocks the front axle and to get it to shift into 4LO I had to grind about .25" off the plug to get my TC to shift into 4LO because I evidently didn't cut enough off the end of the shift rail. I'm betting your problem is similar. Is it not shifting into 4HI or 4LO...or just not going all the way int 4LO? After grinding that extra little bit off of the plug, my TC shifts like a dream.

 

I also had to straighten out my bent TC linkage (bent from dropping it down with the TC lower kit without adjusting at that time). So, straightening the linkage out and grinding the shift rail plug fixed it so I could finally shift my TC into all gears properly.