Sharks4Life

So after a nice long night and morning of rain, I decided to take the jeep out for a bit of mudding. After running around through a couple mudholes in 4High just fine, I decided I wanted to climb a decently steep muddy hill. I decided I needed 4Low, and after putting into park, I reach down the throw it into that, and everything just breaks. Transmission Shifter handle is loose, all tension gone. It's stuck in neutral and when put into park/drive/reverse/2/1 nothing happens. Luckily I was close to home and had a buddy tow me home where I called a tow truck. At the dealership now getting fixed...hopefully won't be much.

arasco85

Had the same thing happen. It was the shifter linkage. Had to crawl under mine and pop it into gear with the park brake on

Sharks4Life

That's what I sort of figured b/c of the stuck in neutral over riding everything else thing. So easy fix right?

walynw

There is a little white round retainer that holds the cable on the t case linkage or at the 4 wheel shifter

walynw

It's a cheap fix and there are threads with pics

arasco85

yeah it as like less than a dollar for the clip. im still under warranty so it was free anyway

JKlad

To get moving again, all you need to do it crawl under the jeep and shift the linkage on the transfer case manually into 2-hi (or 4-hi/4-lo if you want).

If the plastic circlip has failed at the t/case end you can simply reposition the cable and then zip-tie it in place as a temporary fix until you get another clip (unless you have tiny hands you will have to remove a few bolts and swing the skid plate out of the way to gain access). If it's failed at the shifter end then you'll need to remove the centre console in the cabin to gain access to that end of the cable.

Many of us (myself included) who have had this happen before carry a few spare plastic clips in the glove compartment for when it inevitably happens again. Over time operating offroad it seems to be less likely to happen as the linkage loosens up and requires less force to shift the t/case through the ranges (the combination of cheap plastic becoming brittle due to the heat coming off the exhaust nearby and over-exertion of the shifter needed to shift the linkage when it's new and stiff often results in this breakage happening early on in the Jeep's life and less frequently as the linkage and t/case gets broken in over time).

Bosco109

Mine did the same thing a few months back- learned: to shift into, or out of, 4L you must be moving 1-3mph.
Warranty covered mine then, next time I'll do it myself as was shown on one of the threads, eclip and hitch pin.
I was told, when they fixed it that the replacement part number was different than the OEM. Maybe they did it right...???

AZJeeper

There's your problem! Per page 283 of the 2007 owner's manual:

4H to 4L or 4L to 4H
With the vehicle rolling at 2 to 3 mph (3 to 5 km/h), shift
an automatic transmission to N (Neutral) or depress the
clutch pedal on a manual transmission. While the vehicle
is coasting at 2 to 3 mph (3 to 5 km/h), shift the transfer
case lever firmly to the desired position. Do not pause in
transfer case N (Neutral).

JKU 4x4

Mine goes in easier if rolling backwards very slowly, quick firm shifts into 4low. 4high goes in no problems though