Cannot shift from Part Time to 2wd

irunmiles · **Posted:** Thu Jul 25, 2013 9:50 am

I'm on the road and cannot search the forum for an answer. Can anybody diagnose why I'm currently unable to return the shift lever back to 2wd after running in Full Time for a couple of miles?

Vajeepinkj · **Posted:** Thu Jul 25, 2013 10:14 am

There is a pin in the shift cable that breaks mine has I just through a cotter pin in there for now check that you can move the cable by hand from the bottom to put it back in 2wd for now

03 renegade

audiboy86 · **Posted:** Thu Jul 25, 2013 10:17 am

get the jeep rolling slightly shift the tranny into nuetral and then try it but it the shifter is moving completely free then more then likely you have a broken linkage. In that case just crawl under the jeep grab the shifter fork on the side of the trasfer case and do it manually.

papaindigo · **Posted:** Thu Jul 25, 2013 11:53 am

If the 4w drive shift lever is completely free you have lost the little plastic bushing that holds the cable onto the shifter on the transfer case; you can see that point under the vehicle between the tranny and transfer case. It's a tight fit but just pop the cable back on and shift into 2w drive; may have to have person A hold cable on while person B does shift. It will pop right back off but that's harmless for just driving.

Easy cheap fix I have posted on the CRD tech side of the forum.

irunmiles · **Posted:** Sat Jul 27, 2013 4:42 pm

I finally got a chance to crawl under the jeep. Everything looks good with the linkage. The plastic bushing is in place and undamaged. Had my son shift it while I watched from underneath, and it shifts into all 4wd options smoothly but it will not shift into 2wd. The oil level in the transfer case is fine, and it was changed ~10k miles ago. Would welcome any further input to solve this problem.

irunmiles · **Posted:** Sat Jul 27, 2013 5:45 pm

To add to the above, I also grabbed the shift lever on the transfer case with a pair if vice grips and could not force it into the 2wd position.

DOC4444 · **Posted:** Sat Jul 27, 2013 6:29 pm

I suspect that the indexing may have slipped. Put the lever in the position it will move to, closest to 2WD (Part-Time, I believe, w/o checking). Then, put the vehicle on stands and see if there is drive to the front wheels. If you find there is not, everything is just off by one step.

DOC

audiboy86 · **Posted:** Sun Jul 28, 2013 3:37 pm

Atleast these transfer cases are easy to drop with 2 good jacks or a good second set of hands and rebuilding them is extremely easy.

JDaPP · **Posted:** Sun Mar 29, 2015 8:15 am

I have same problem what did you do to get it fixed?

glaspak845 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 29, 2015 7:36 pm

I'm not sure I have understood you symptoms correctly, but if the lever slides into 2wd but the transfer case won't actually shift into 2wd, I have had this issue.

In my case my front and rear tires are worn differently so they are slightly different diameters. After talking to some people, we came to the conclusion some "pressure" builds up into the driveline due to the differing diameters. To get it to shift into 2wd I usually head to an open parking lot and drive it in reverse for a little while, then go forward while the lever is in 2wd. This relieves any "pressure" in the driveline and allows it to shift into 2wd as normal.

Works like a charm.

If the lever won't physically shift from PT to 2wd, I have not experienced that and the above won't help.

Good luck.

JDaPP · **Posted:** Sun Mar 29, 2015 8:27 pm

In my case the lever moves, cable is connected and you can see the selector move underneath the vehicle. It clearly was not coming out of 4wd as you could feel the binding in a turn. In full time it felt better but still had binding. I changed the fluid in the transfer case and I was able to get it into full time with no binding so I left it there because I am out of town and I just need it to work for now. What I am seeing right now is when I put into 2wd the lever feels like it is ready to pop out. As soon as I touch it will go right into part time. Open to any suggestions I can get. It was working fine Friday (shifted to full time and out multiple times) and then saturday went to part time and the trouble started.

flash7210 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 29, 2015 9:20 pm

Follow the instuctiins from Glasspack.
Your transfer case is binding.
Sometimes shifting the transmission into N before moving the transfer case lever into 2wd corrects this.

ATXKJ · **Posted:** Mon Mar 30, 2015 12:25 pm

backing up helps

- takes the stress off of the gears

JDaPP · **Posted:** Wed Apr 01, 2015 1:47 pm

Combination of changing transfer case fluid, backing up, etc. seems to have worked. Thanks for the help!

Cannot shift from Part Time to 2wd

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