Well, my wife just drove from central Massachusetts to southeast Connecticut, about a 2 hour drive. She called me when she got to her destination and said very ominously "the Jeep isn't shifting right". Every time she shifts into second gear, the gears grind hard. All other gears (including reverse) are "crunch" free. Additionally, I had her go out and just idle the KJ in neutral, and then step down on the clutch and shift into all the gears, one at a time. Only second crunched, and it was loud enough for me to hear it over the cell phone. I'm having her just skip second gear and come back home to bring it to the dealer.

This is an '04 KJ, with 3.7/NP231/5speed combo, and it only has 23,000 easy miles on it. I realize that the NV3500 isn't considered a heavy-duty transmission, but cripes, this ain't a CRV, either!

Anyone else have synchro failures with their manual tranny KJ's?? I have to say that I'm EXTREMELY dissapointed in this failure. We bought this KJ based on the bulletproof reliability of my own XJ, but that is obviously not the case....

Did your wife (& the liberty) make it back yet?

I find it strange that after only a 2 hour drive your syncros would be shot. If you have the Liberty still, have you tried double clutching to see if the problem goes away? How is the fluid level in the trans?

_________________
02 Liberty Limited
Silver Outside & Taupe Inside
Heated Seats, Sunroof & Infinity speakers
USA Spec I-Pod adaptor, Mopar Sub, Garmin GPS
Tow Package, Select-Trac
Rock Rails, Tow Hooks

Aloha - I have been having the same problems. Although my trans is still accetable. I believed its cased by a few things.
1 - Engine is slow to drop RPM to accomodate a shift
http://dodgeram.info/tsb/2004/pdf/18-017-04.pdf
2 - Standard Trans is crap / Shifts poorly- Thats why they replaced it this year this with the 6 speed
3 - My XJ had the foreign 5speed (french??) Great shifting trans - We are just used to a an easy shift -
so we forced the shift wearing down the syncros on every shift. Unless you double clutch as I do at times.
and almost always double clutch on a down shift to perform emergency accelleration.

MPG Milage issues as well - Just Curious what have you been for MPG.
KjHawaii