Hi guys, I have a 2000 Cherokee, AT, part time 4WD. Quite suddenly I got grinding gears switching into low from a stop (Hi 4WD no problem). And there is no longer a solid "thunk" when it engages, you just have to jank back really hard till the Lo light comes on. Worse, going up a steep ledge, it popped out of gear, I nearly went over the edge. My jeep mechanic looked it over and says nothing is wrong, linkage is fine, just turn off engine before engaging if necessary. But this thing is clearly dangerous. Any ideas out there?

Thanks for your help,

Bob from Arizona

 

do you put the tranny in N when going into 4Low? i think theres a shift fork or somethin in there, might wanna look into it. i duno if this particular problem has anything to do with the chain, but maybe you wanna check it.
also, have you ever changed the fluid? if not, you could start there.

 

Sounds like the linkage needs adjusting

 

I'll bug my mechanic some more. You have to go thru N to get to 4WD Lo. The Cherokee is in good shape, 110,000 miles, has had the fluid changed once and powerflushed a second time.

Seems like a linkage problem to me, since lever does no snap in all the way.

Bob

 

do you have an sye?

231 tcase?

 

He is referring to the transmission being in Neutral when attempting to put the transfer case into 4 Low.

I also think it is a linkage problem.

 

You need to come to a complete stop and slip the tranny into neutral before attempting to engage 4LO. It is a gear change inside the transfercase so the moving has to stop on the gears too. I let mine come to a complete stop, shift tranny into neutral and count to 10 before engaging in 4LO. Every Jeep is going to be slightly different.
Popping out of Lo is a symptom of adjustment being off. They can only need a fraction of an inch to be changed.