My 98 Jeep TJ Questions and Repair

TmLIsMe14

TmLIsMe14

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Oct 5, 2019
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Connecticut
I have a 4.0 5 Speed TJ, I have recently been noticing that shifting into 4th gear is getting harder and harder, along with basically grinding into reverse no matter what I do, most of the time. I have tried pressing in the clutch 2-3 times before trying to shift into reverse. Sometimes the reverse gear does not grind, but almost 75% of the time it now grinds. I am not mechanically inclined so I don't know what to do about it. I figured I should ask the experts of the Jeep TJ before I make my move to do something about it and regret it.

Other than my 4th gear and reverse grind, my TJ seems to be doing odd things. Such as, after starting the idle will be rough, I think. It will do some sort of sputtering and the RPM gauge will go below 1 on the gauge but it will sound like it's trying to do something else. But I am not totally sure. One other thing I have noticed, while minor, is the shift light will come on at odd RPMs. I'll be in 4th around 2k or so and the light will come up but I'm doing only around 40-45MPH. Other times it will come on at 2nd gear right after shifting into it. This all recently started happening, one weird thing with the shift light is that even though my TJ is a 5 speed when I am in 5th gear the shift light will come on again.

About 2 months ago I purchased tires, Toyo AT3s, I love them. But I really need an alignment, but the tire place quoted $799 USD, at the shop that sold me the tires. They said I need a new drag link and a new tie rod. I went to my main mechanic after the tire shop and he quoted $500 USD. Let it be said here that my TJ is back to being full stock, 30x95.15 tires, no lift, no mods to transmission, or anything else for offroading or performance. Are either of these prices good or am I being told wrong?

One other thing I noticed, which is now getting worse, my steering box is bad, my mechanic told me it's leaking from the main seal real bad, what would be my cheapest options for a replacement? I see that some replacements sell for near and over $700 USD.

As I said, my TJ is like stock again, so I would like to have parts that would be good for stock.
 
Ignore the shift light. Pretty sure it's vacuum operated so it's more of a guess that you need to shift.

The reverse gear is not synchronized meaning there is no synchronizer ring in place to match the speed of the reverse gear to the transmission speed. when shifting into reverse either hold the clutch in for like 5-7 seconds or hold the clutch in, go to third, then go to reverse.

Your synchronizer for 4th gear may be worn out. How many miles are on your transmission?
 
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tugboat4 said:
Ignore the shift light. Pretty sure it's vacuum operated so it's more of a guess that you need to shift.

The reverse gear is not synchronized meaning there is no synchronizer ring in place to match the speed of the reverse gear to the transmission speed. when shifting into reverse either hold the clutch in for like 5-7 seconds or hold the clutch in, go to third, then go to reverse.

Your synchronizer for 4th gear may be worn out. How many miles are on your transmission?
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I'm not entirely sure, I bought this Jeep recently and still know almost nothing about maintenance records. A hint of what the previous owner did was not change the co2 sensor (from factory still), and the tj still had it's original factory spark plugs, according to my mechanic.

How can I check the miles on my transmission? Can the sync ring be replaced?
 
I guess it was silly to ask how many miles on the tranny. How many miles on the jeep? Do you have any reason to believe the trans has been replaced? If not it has the same miles the jeep does. They usually call for a rebuild around 170k miles but mine has 139k and I'm dealing with issues myself. To replace the synchro you'll have to do a rebuild meaning opening up the trans. It can be costly unless you do it yourself. As for the ignition issues, I don't know much. I would start by changing spark plugs and cleaning the throttle body. Does the jeep vibrate a lot and "grumble" at idle? It's supposed to drop to about 650-700 rpm when idling. Does the rpm needle bob up and down at idle?
 
tugboat4 said:
I guess it was silly to ask how many miles on the tranny. How many miles on the jeep? Do you have any reason to believe the trans has been replaced? If not it has the same miles the jeep does. They usually call for a rebuild around 170k miles but mine has 139k and I'm dealing with issues myself. To replace the synchro you'll have to do a rebuild meaning opening up the trans. It can be costly unless you do it yourself. As for the ignition issues, I don't know much. I would start by changing spark plugs and cleaning the throttle body. Does the jeep vibrate a lot and "grumble" at idle? It's supposed to drop to about 650-700 rpm when idling. Does the rpm needle bob up and down at idle?
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I am at 155k and I have no reason to believe that the transmission has been replaced. But I can say, I honestly do not know.

For the idling, it will sometimes stay at 1 and start bobbing from 1 to 1.2, I can hear it going up and down, but if I turn the engine off and on it goes back to normal idle. This only started happening recently.
 
If the plugs were original, there is a high likely hood the gear oil in transmission and transfer case are original too. I had good luck eliminating grinding issues going into 2nd on my 2000. Try using Red Line fluid...it’s about $20/qt, so for $80.00 and an hour of work it may clean up your synchro’s. Your AX5 takes 4 quarts, and it call out MT-90.
 
PJOJeep said:
If the plugs were original, there is a high likely hood the gear oil in transmission and transfer case are original too. I had good luck eliminating grinding issues going into 2nd on my 2000. Try using Red Line fluid...it’s about $20/qt, so for $80.00 and an hour of work it may clean up your synchro’s. Your AX5 takes 4 quarts, and it call out MT-90.
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I should of mentioned that my mechanic changed all fluids, during the tune up. I assume he also did the transmission and the transfer case fluid.
 
tugboat4 said:
Ask don't assume. I've spoken with mechanics that say you don't need to change transmission fluid.
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I'll call to check to see what he did in the morning.

But for the steering parts, I would like to ask what I should do. Can I get some advice on that matter?
 
For reverse, sometimes you need to let the clutch out just a little bit, very slowly, while you are applying pressure on the shifter to go into reverse.

Definitely need to check that your fluids in your transfer case and transmission are the correct type. You want specifically GL4 oil in your transmission. For Redline, that is 50305 MT 90, as noted above. Anything other than GL4 will damage your synchros.
 
Not sure where in CT you are, but I'm in North East CT near Storrs/UConn. There is a tire place in North Windham that always does pretty good alignments on my Jeeps and my friends' Jeeps. As far as the tie rod and drag link, there is likely play in them and they should probably be replaced. You can either go with stock (rockauto.com has decent prices) or upgrade to heavier duty parts from a ZJ Grand Cherokee V8 (more info on this site somewhere).


My '98 TJ will most of the time grind in reverse unless I shift into 5th first. I'll usually stop, shift into 5th, then reverse and have no grinding.
 
jeepguy03 said:
Not sure where in CT you are, but I'm in North East CT near Storrs/UConn. There is a tire place in North Windham that always does pretty good alignments on my Jeeps and my friends' Jeeps. As far as the tie rod and drag link, there is likely play in them and they should probably be replaced. You can either go with stock (rockauto.com has decent prices) or upgrade to heavier duty parts from a ZJ Grand Cherokee V8 (more info on this site somewhere).


My '98 TJ will most of the time grind in reverse unless I shift into 5th first. I'll usually stop, shift into 5th, then reverse and have no grinding.
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I'm in Willimantic, I used landon for tires. I don't off-road my TJ so I'm not sure the ZJ upgrade would be cost effective. But in not totally sure
 
Regarding your question on steering parts & cost (New drag link, new tie rod, labor, & front end alignment). The two quotes you received $799 (seems excessive) and $500 from your main mechanic).

I’m not from your area so I looked online at the national average (used AAA Auto repair site) estimated $235-$335 for tie rod replacement. They don’t have a drag link option on AAA so I just googled “National Average Cost 98 Jeep TJ drag link replacement” which was $278. So, looking at those two cost and if your main mechanic is having an alignment done also and you have had quality work completed by this mechanic I think $500 is a fair price. Again, just my quick On-Line research due to I’m not co-located in Connecticut and have never had stock parts installed/replaced on my TJ.
 
I've replaced all that steering linkage on my '98 myself and to put that pricing in perspective, to buy new replacements made by Moog would be about $130 for the Drag Link with a new Tie Rod end for the Pitman arm side. For the Tie Rod it would be about $100 for the ZJ setup (Tie Rod & Bar, Tie Rod for other side, and a new adjusting sleeve).

Keep in mind those come as bare steel - I primed and painted mine. So, that's $230 just for materials and depending on the amount of rust yours has, I could see it taking a couple hours to remove & replace.

Alignment runs about $100 for me here.

WIth that said, $500 seems reasonable but be sure you understand all the parts he's actually replacing.


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