Did this damage my Jeep?

Hi,

Earlier today, some doofus backed his van into my Jeep. :doh:

Fortunately, there does not appear to be any damage. I didn't see how fast he was going, but when I heard the bang I looked up to see my jeep rocking back and forth in it's parking spot and that knucklehead jumping out to see what he ran into.

I'm not mechanic, so I thought I'd throw it up here to see if there is anything else I should be concerned about. He either hit my rear bumper or trailer hitch. I don't see any dents, and he didn't appear to leave any paint behind, so I believe that is was pretty minor. But, how can I check to make sure nothing else is tweaked? The trans. was in park with the handbrake off - is there potential to cause damage to the tranny?

Thanks,
G


1994 XJ Sport, AW4, All Stock.

you should always use the handbrake when in park.

auto transmissions don't like it when they get moved around in park. I have heard of people breaking the parking pin, but I'm not sure if that would do it.

check your suspension underneath make sure nothing is broken or tweaked. make sure the hatch still works. mine is sensitive to things like getting hit, and flexing unibody.

If he backed into the rear bumper I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you really want to look at something, inspect the frame rail where the hitch bolts up, and also look at the bushings on the leaf springs.

I've always thought that an auto transmission in park is just the transmission in neutral with a parking paw. The only thing that would be damaged is the parking paw nothing else mechanical within the transmission.

iwannadie said:

I've always thought that an auto transmission in park is just the transmission in neutral with a parking paw. The only thing that would be damaged is the parking paw nothing else mechanical within the transmission.

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True, it's in neutral, but whatever gear train exists between the output shaft and the parking pawl will be stressed. I don't know just where the parking pawl is located on this box, but "neutral" does not mean that the output shaft is decoupled from all the transmission's innards.

While it's likely no damage occurred, hitting a vehicle in park would stress all the drivetrain from the wheels up to the pawl.

You'd have compress everything weaker first

Matthew Currie said:

True, it's in neutral, but whatever gear train exists between the output shaft and the parking pawl will be stressed. I don't know just where the parking pawl is located on this box, but "neutral" does not mean that the output shaft is decoupled from all the transmission's innards.

While it's likely no damage occurred, hitting a vehicle in park would stress all the drivetrain from the wheels up to the pawl.

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it is located immediately inside the main transmission housing (not the 4wd transfer case adapter housing) on the output shaft. I've got a couple mostly gutted AW4s around, really should take a pic sometime.

Only things I'd bother checking are the transmission parking pawl (just make sure it still works, and disengages fine), the rear driveshaft and U-joints, maybe the spider gears in the rear axle, make sure the hatch still opens and closes properly, and make sure the frame didn't get bent where the hitch bolts on.

Check your engine and transmission mounts

Cool, thanks all. I'll have a look.

Check the gap around each door and hatch is uniform, and all for open & shut smoothly.
(your hitch probably just payed for itself!)

Good Luck,
Orange