I have just returned from my annual hunting trip and my CRD worked as a charm hauling a trailer and going off-roading. Total made about 3000 km. After returning home I drove to the hearest store for grocereis and my jeep suddenly lost all the movement. The engine is running fine, transmission lever is shifting fine, but the gears does not engage at all. It feels like the CRD is always in Neutral. I checked the cable and it looks fine. Oil levels are perfect and clear. No CEL present. I think that my torque converter died, but I did not have any shudder on the road towing a trailer... May be bolts loosen up? Any other thoughts or help? Thank you all in anticipation.

I would not look first at TC failure as instant death is doubtful and if the TC bolts were loose you would hear the banging. Rather I'd look at a disconnect between the transmission shift lever in the cab and the shift cable at the transmission end which will take 2 people (in in the car to move the shift lever and the other underneath to see what if anything the cable and what it's supposed to be attached to does or does not do).

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Sold to LOST member my 05 Ltd, GDE Stg II turbo + TCM tune, SunCoast TC w. Transgo kit, Steiger window regulators, Samcos, Fumoto valve, 2nd gen filter head with Lub. Spec. bleeder, Hayden clutch & 11 blade fan, inverted spare, P-1 battery, BF Goodrich Long Trail TAs, Etecno1 glow plugs, timing belt at 50K miles/8 yrs

Thank you papaindigo, but that what we checked right away and the cable is attached and moving the things when lever is being shifted. The truck disengaged on the move without any noticeable bang or noise. I can hear a spinning noise (not very loud) for about 5-7 sec after I shut down the engine... Any other thoughts?

Darn I hate it when the simple obvious thing is not the cause but in my defense that's what had happened when I lost all 4-wheel and the fix was a less that $1 bushing from DCJ.

Just to be sure I assumed that by "oil" levels being ok you mean the ATF fluid level was ok. Possible stupid question but I did lose all tranny motion on the fly in my Dodge D250 Cummins when I lost a bronze ATF coolant line fitting and the tranny pumped all the ATF out in like 2 miles. No long term damage but rather more than a bit of a surprise.

I'm not at all an automatic transmission person although I have redone manual transmissions. That said the 545RFE is a pretty common DCJ transmission (e.g. not limited to the CRD) so you may have to find a good independent transmission shop although how common that is in your location I don't know. The 2 things that come to mind are 1) the fluid pump may have failed as the original design had some issues and IIRC has been replaced with a beefer model or 2) there is a plate on the side of the valve body that has been know to come adrift due to bolt failure or backing out which I suspect would stop the tranny from working at all. The latter can be diagnosed by simply dropping the tranny pan and looking at the valve body and the fix is to install the TransGo kit (without the resistor that they used to include). The TransGo kit is a relatively easy DIY I understand although I had it done as part of SunCoast installing my TC. See http://liberty.eurekaboy.com/transgo.htm for an older post on the topic and a picture of the valve body and plate I mentioned.

Beyond this I'm out of my league.

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Sold to LOST member my 05 Ltd, GDE Stg II turbo + TCM tune, SunCoast TC w. Transgo kit, Steiger window regulators, Samcos, Fumoto valve, 2nd gen filter head with Lub. Spec. bleeder, Hayden clutch & 11 blade fan, inverted spare, P-1 battery, BF Goodrich Long Trail TAs, Etecno1 glow plugs, timing belt at 50K miles/8 yrs

Thank you papaindigo for taking time and efforts helping me out. I will try your suggerstions today after work and let the forum know what the problem was if I will be able to solve it at all.

What about the transfer case linkage? Could it be stuck in Neutral?

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U.S. Army Retired

Interesting thought if unlikely. ribak as I mentioned I did lose 4-wheel drive when my transfer case linkage cable popped off the plastic bushing at the transfer case in which case in theory I suppose it's possible then for the transfer case shift lever to get pushed into "N" from an external cause. Check to see if your 4-wheel shift lever has zero resistance to movement, if so the transfer case linkage has come loose (see viewtopic.php?f=98&t=69582 for the cheap fix). If it's not loose try shifting into another drive position and see if you get tranny movement back. Obvously don't force anything.

Worth a try.

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Sold to LOST member my 05 Ltd, GDE Stg II turbo + TCM tune, SunCoast TC w. Transgo kit, Steiger window regulators, Samcos, Fumoto valve, 2nd gen filter head with Lub. Spec. bleeder, Hayden clutch & 11 blade fan, inverted spare, P-1 battery, BF Goodrich Long Trail TAs, Etecno1 glow plugs, timing belt at 50K miles/8 yrs

Is that possible that the problem in the sheared bolts at flywheel (flexplate) and hub? Or broken flexplate? I found this hint through the search, but not sure what it is. Is this difficult to fix? Please help and thank you all in anticipation.

Any of those issues you mention require dropping the transmission for further analysis and repair. This is a good 5 hour labor bill at a minimum.

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