Clutch or transmission ???

[10tapper]

What has gone wrong?
1998 Cherokee sport 4 lt 5 speed it has 230Km's and has stock motor and drive train.
I have had this Jeep for 8 years. Up until now no problems while driving or shifting, no slipping of the clutch and no smells of a burning clutch. Diffs , transmission and 231 transfer case all serviced less than a month ago. On the weekend driving down the highway at 80 Km's or 50 miles per hour in 5th gear I heard a little bit of a whine and then Jeep started to shutter, it lost a little bit of speed this was in about 5 -10 seconds. I down shifted to 4th let the clutch out and smoothed out for about 10 seconds than did the same thing started to shutter bad enough to make me pull over. I pulled to the side of the road and turned the jeep off to take a look and see what was happening, no leaks no burning smell, both front and rear drive shafts and U-Joints looked good no spit caps. Got back in and shifted into 1st gear started Jeep up let clutch out and no movement at all, tried reverse shuttered and then nothing. I then tried shifting into all gears seems like shifts smoothly and into every gear let clutch out and no movement in any gear except 4th gear, shifter jumped out of gear tried to shift back into 4th and would not engage but was making a grinding sound. The Jeep will not move in any gear except for 4th gear.
So what are your thoughts is this the clutch or transmission? Thanks for any and all input. Arch.

 

[Ivan]

My bet is a toasted transmission.

My '98 - 5 spd showed the exact same symptoms (whine and pretty much everything else you describe) just before it died. Turned out over time, I didn't notice the leaky transmission seal (hidden among all my other oil leaks) and it ran the transmission dry. I was going down the freeway when it failed. No functioning gear, except 4th. Once I figured out 4th was all I had left, and really not much else to do except wanting to avoid paying a tow charge; I decided to drive the 25 miles back home in 4th. Thankfully I have 4.56 gearing, just enough to get the rig moving in 4th gear, from a dead stop.

Turns out all gears were pretty much toast, except 4th. They guy at the transmission shop confirmed over the phone, once I mentioned all I had left was 4th.

Start looking for a transmission.....

 

[10tapper]

That's what I was thinking as well, thanks for the reply. Now on a search to find one. Anyone have one around Southern Ontario?

 

[Matthew Currie]

That "only fourth" is kind of indicative, because fourth is direct drive. Essentially, this is the one gear that will work even when others do not. If the bottom of the case blew out and the countershaft landed on the road, it would still go in fourth.

 

[Alaskan89XJ]

Dang.., I wonder if the service place forgot to refill it. Have seen that before. Best wishes on your hunt.