Sinking Creek 4WD Association

So a little background. Last October I started to feel problems shifting. It wasn't gears grinding, the shifter just wasn't sliding into gear like it's supposed to. It started gradual with first and reverse being difficult, and then became next to impossible. The other gears could get shifted into easier, but still wasn't right. I replaced the master and slave clutch cylinders without a difference in the problem. So I finally gave up and took it to a shop to get a more knowledgeable option. He said I might have gotten some water in the trans causing my pilot bearing to seize up. So I made an appointment and ordered the parts I wanted. I got a center force pressure plate and clutch disk, mopar flywheel and pilot bearing, and moog throw out bearing. I spoke to center force and they said that these parts wouldn't cause any issues and should go well together. In late November/early December South Main Auto replaced everything and the clutch felt great. I really wanted to do it myself, but I don't have the knowledge and finals were approaching so time was my enemy.

Now back to two/three weeks ago. I feel the same symptoms starting again before spring break. Then it went away and I thought it was a freak accident and put it in the back of my mind. Now yesterday I left Sam's to go get food and first and reverse are extremely difficult to get into. To the point where I almost can't get into first again. I really need to force the shifter to finally get it into gear.

Today I went out on a limb and replace the trans fluid with penzoil syncromesh (meets Chrysler standards) hoping that South Main used some generic fluid that just wasn't cutting it. Shifting was great, for all of 2 minutes and now its back. Went to parallel park not even 10 minutes ago and couldn't even get it into reverse. I was finally able to force the shifter back and she stalled on me, I don't even think I had let the clutch out at this point.

I don't know what to do. I love my wrangler and don't want to get rid of it, but if I have to replace my clutch AGAIN it's gonna piss me off. And deplete any chance I have of getting 35s soon. I have about 0 transmission knowledge beyond a basic understanding and can't exactly afford to take it to a shop to have them diagnose and pull apart my transmission. Not to mention I really don't trust any of the shops down here. The only guy I really like is back home, but thats 8 hours to NJ.

Any help you guys can give me would be great. Random ideas or a shot in the dark is better than where I am right now. Or if someone wants to hang out and tear my transmission apart for a weekend and figure this out, I'll buy beer and pizza. Getting pretty effin desperate at this point.

I didn't think I was going to make it to Big Dogs, but now it's definitely not in the cards.

TL;DR: Clutch is fucked up AGAIN

I am going out on a limb here and am going to approach this from a logical perspective instead of a mechanical perspective:

You said that putting Synchromesh seemed to fix it for a couple of minutes. So if the tranny fluid was not the issue, then the Synchromesh should not have worked at all. This leads me to believe the tranny fluid might still be the issue, because if I am not mistaken, when you replace the tranny fluid you are only replacing a small portion of it. It could be that small portion of Synchromesh was enough to get it working for a couple of minutes, but once it mixed back in with the bad shit, it started failing again. It sounds like you might need to completely drain the transmission of all fluid and refill it completely with Synchromesh.

Of course that could be a complete waste of time. When my reverse lights quit working on my TJ, I thought for sure it was the reverse light switch. Each time I would replace the switch, the lights would work for like a month and then quit working again. After replacing the switch 3 times, I determined that the switch was not the issue, even though it seemed like it at first. If I had kept the TJ, I probably would have just prepared my asshole and brought it to the dealer. This could be one of those things where it ends up being more expensive trying to replace things that aren't broken rather than have a professional diagnose it for you.

Replacing the fluid was just a shot in the dark, hoping that some quality fluid would clear things up. The drain bolt is at the bottom of the trans so most of the fluid should have drained out. I am probably going to have to resort to bringing it to a shop for a full diagnosis and repair. Money is tight after being out of work since I fractured two of my vertebrae this winter. I also like to learn more about my jeep by doing any possible repairs myself not only to save money but to have the knowledge to do any future maintenance. But transmissions are complicated and a shop might be in my future. If only the mechanic I trusted wasn't so far away.

Pull it into 4th gear first to stop the transmission from spinning and then throw it in 1st or Reverse, which ever you are wanting to do. I've always done this out of habit from driving tractors and trucks without synchronized transmissions. See if that'll help you.