NSS installation

98 AW4 NSS install. Old switch came off with difficulty, it started off easy then hung up about even with the end of the tranny shaft. I broke it trying to pry it off the last .5" or so.

I've searched but haven't found any info. on a NSS hanging up partway on the shaft.

New (high $) switch will start on ok, then hangs up and won't seat all the way down on the tranny shaft. I've cleaned all the rust & corrosion off the shaft (140K miles) before trying to install the new NSS, but that hasn't helped. I've got the tranny in neutral, switch is set to approx. neutral. Is there some indexing I'm missing on the 98?

Anyone else had problems with R&R NSS in 98 XJ's? At the price of this part I sure don't want to break another one.

Thanks

This is common, and caused by crud buildup on the end of the manual shift shaft (the part that runs through the NSS - it's connected by a cable to the shifter handle in the cabin.)

I will usually tell people anymore to take a wire wheel and clean the shaft first, since it gets so cruddy. Then, clean the case end of the shaft once the NSS has been removed.

That may also be a good time to put a light chamfer on the end of the shift shaft, particularly if you can feel any burrs or gouges. Use a grinding stone chucked into a drill motor for this.

Paint the exposed end of the manual shift shaft with never-seez before installing the new NSS.

The nut gets torqued to 62 pound-inches (a shade over five pound-feet. I usually just finger-tight it,) and the adjuster screw up top gets torqued to 12-15 pound-feet. I've covered how to properly adjust the NSS previously, so you can search that one up (I gotta do a writeup on this someday...)

If you haven't tossed your old NSS, can I get the pieces from you? I can cover shipping if you like - I'm collecting parts for a pet project or two...

5-90 said:

That may also be a good time to put a light chamfer on the end of the shift shaft, particularly if you can feel any burrs or gouges. Use a grinding stone chucked into a drill motor for this.

Click to expand...

This!
I shattered the absolute crap out of mine when i tried to clean it about 2 yrs ago. carefully grind the shaft down some where it's catching. (that's what she said)

Good luck. i've had the temp 'fix' of jumping the A and C nodes on the harness going on 2 yrs now and feel bad every time one of these threads comes up b/c i should have been more careful... i still need to hit the JY to get another one!

I just recently pulled mine off took it apart and cleaned it up cause it was acting up, did it on an old xj i had too. Just took my time prying and lightly tapped it back into place

5-90, mind if I ask what that pet project is? Might be the same one I'm considering.

I'd send you the bits of my NSS, but it broke partially (whose idea was it to make that damn split shaft bit out of cast aluminum, of all things?), and by the time it was off I was about to turn green and most of it was pretty much useless. Disassembled the damn thing and from what I could tell every single part had at least one fracture. I'm good like that sometimes :dunce:

Thanks for the suggestions, I got the new one on (by hand, no pounding on it) after an hour of sanding/filing the shaft. I thought I had cleaned the shaft before, it looked shiny and clean, but it took much more before the NSS started going on further.

Thanks 5-90 for your input, it was the solution. I did coat the shaft & center of the NSS with Never-Seize. When I finished tying the cable up I shot the entire area with Fluid Film to undercoat it.

I pretty much ruined the old one, prying on the nut broke the nipple off and it shot somewhere into outer space, never to be seen again. After that I pryed on the back of it to get it off and the plastic part of the housing cracked.

Thanks again to all