Project JEEP: Murphy's Law Rears It's Head

I woke up Saturday morning feeling quite confident that I was going to make a good deal of progress that day. I had spent the previous night doing research and reading Jeep forums to determine what parts and hardware I needed in order to finish assembling my transmission and get it ready to bolt up to the engine so I could finally drop in my drivetrain and make sure everything works.

I had received two vital transmission components earlier in the week that I had found for sale online, and after I stopped at AutoZone to pick up a clutch kit (which included a pressure plate, clutch, internal slave cylinder, and pilot bearing) and some Penzoil Synchromesh transmission fluid I figured I had everything I needed to complete this major milestone.

The first step was to remove the bell housing and front bearing retainer plate from my old transmission (see below, model AX-5). The only reason I removed these components was so that I could re-use the bolts in my new transmission.

Bell housing removed.

Front bearing retainer plate removed.

The next step was to assemble my new transmission (AX-15, pictured below) with the old bolts. I already had the bell housing; the new parts I received last week were the front bearing retainer plate (the AX-5 plate doesn't fit the AX-15) and the gearshifter mechanism.

Output shaft, connects to transfer case, which then connects to differential(s).

Input shaft, front bearing retainer plate goes here.

On the right is the gearshifter that I found for sale on JeepForum.com

Here is the new AX-15 with the bell housing and retainer plate attached.

At this point, I attempted to install the new internal clutch slave cylinder and pilot bearing, and I discovered that the pilot bearing did not fit the output shaft of my transmission. It DID however fit the output shaft of my old AX-5. So I figured I must have received the wrong clutch kit and I exchanged it at AutoZone for what I was told should be the right one. But after driving 20 minutes each way and lugging the kit to and from my car I realized that the new kit is set-up for an external slave cylinder... which is not what I need.

It seems that I need to exchange the kit again for the original and purchase a new pilot bearing that will fit the AX-15's output shaft. In case you were wondering, Murphy's law basically states that "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong," which was beginning to become the theme for the day.

Gearshifter bolted in place.

This theme only became stronger as time went by. After I had the bell housing, retainer plate, and shifter in place, I decided to mess around with the shift lever to make sure I could shift it into all of the gears (1 through 5 and reverse).

But of course, this was not the case. I was able to shift into 1st and 2nd, and I was able to shift into 5th and reverse, but for some reason I could not shift into either 3rd or 4th. In addition to this issue, I noticed that when I shifted into neutral and turned the input shaft, the output shaft turned as well. This should only happen when the transmission is in gear, so clearly something was wrong. I tried adding the transmission fluid to see if that would loosen things up and get it working, but the problem persisted. After a great deal of tinkering and cursing, I finally gave up for the day after my frustration level reached its limit.

The next day at work, I talked to a guy named Donnie who has a good deal of experience rebuilding transmissions. He had some suggestions on what could be wrong and how to fix it, but after work that day I followed his advice to no avail.

Eventually, Dave and I decided to load the transmission into the back of his truck and bring it over to Donnie's house so he could take a look at it. Without taking too many things apart, we determined that one of the gear forks must be broken or stuck in place, which is preventing me from shifting into any other gear. So, I am now in the process of tracking down the guy who sold this piece of junk to me so I can get my money back...