hard to engage reverse gear from rest

[psrivats]

Something that I have noticed ever since I got my TJ couple months ago - the reverse gear is sometimes hard to engage when I start the jeep from rest (ie going from park —> reverse). It will engage every time but quite hard to push into from Park sometimes. There is no noise of any sort. It's worse when parked in my driveway with a slope that compared to when it is sitting in my flat garage. Is there anything that can be done to fix this? I have the 42RLE.

 

[Jerry Bransford]

Your shift button may not be able to push the unlocking lever that allows the shift lever to move freely between Park, Reverse, and the other gears far enough to completely unlock the shift mechanism. There's a flexible plastic rod under the shift handle that runs down the lever that connects the push button on the handle to the shifter's unlock mechanism beneath the console.

After setting the Parking brake, shift to Lo then pull the handle straight up and off. It requires a solid pull, there is nothing but friction holding it on.

Once you have have the handle off, you can pull the plastic rod up and out of the lever. It looks like this...

If it's broken, it can be replaced by the OE part, a chopstick properly trimmed, or (my preference) a plastic coat hanger rod trimmed to length. You'll notice the diameter at one end needs to be reduced to fit into the little matching hole in the shifter handle.

 

[psrivats]

@Jerry Bransford Thanks for the tip. Let me see if I can do this myself. Why would they use a flimsy plastic part here

 

[Chris]

@TJDaveX did a how-to article on this common problem here:

2003-2006 42RLE transmission shift interlock fix