trouble moving shift lever into lst with auto trans on 90 xj

Reclently I've had trouble moving my shift lever into lst with my auto trans on my 90 xj. It just won't move past 3rd.

This has happened a couple times the last several days. I've managed to get into lst by moving the stick lever up and down thru the gears up to park and back down, until it finally got unstuck and went into lst.

I also had some problem moving it into park.

Once in lst it definately is in first since I used it going down very steep dirt hills in 4 wheel low and it really held the rig back.

Someone knowledgeable got under the rig and said it sounded right.

Any suggestions as to what is wrong and how I can fix it.

Don´t know it it´s relavent or not, but I had a tear in the shifter cover. Took a couple of tries to find park on occasion. Later had trouble with 1-2, Pulled the shifter cover and found it full of Mcdonald toys, pop tabs and other assorted junk. Popping the cover off and lifting it enough to look underneath is fairly easy. If necessary, the shifting T, pops straight up and off, on my 88, imagine your 90 is the same. If the shifting T isn´t seated all the way down or twists, it could cause problems, as could the rod running down the middle being worn. I swapped out the wedge driven by the button, on one old 87, was a fairly pronounced groove worn in it.

I followed your advice and popped the cover off and also pooped up the shifting T.

It looks like there may be three problems. 1) The shifting T doesn't seat tightly on the upright, which means that pushing the button doesn't move the lever in the mechanism that unlocks between gears. 2) That mechanism under the cover seems to be tight (the little piece of metal that locks the levr in place in each gear it doesn't pop up easily once it is down--so that it is never really locked on the shift lever in any gear, and doesn't move back down easily once its in lock position either

3) The rod that is inside the upright shifting lever may also be worn, though if it is its not obvious, the wedge inside the T looks OK.


I think temporarily I may be able to manage to shift into 1st and park when it gets stuck by really pushing down hard on the T while I push the little button.

I may need to replace the T, the rod, or even the whole mechanism.
Buy at least I know the problem isn't more serious --and has noting to do with the transmission itself.

Thanks for your help, Any further suggestions by anyone would we be welcome.