Hi. I have a 97 Jeep Sahara with a manual transmission. I've had it for a year and have never had any problems with it. We haven't driven it for probably over a month. I charged the battery because it wouldn't start. When I did get it started, it jumped forward. I had the clutch and brake pushed in so this surprised me. I put it in neutral and now it won't go into any gear with the engine running. If the engine is off I can shift through the gears easily and the clutch feels normal. We checked the manual transmission fluid and added a little but it's still doing the same thing. If we put the transfer case into neutral while it's running it will shift into gear but then we can't take the transfer case out of neutral. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Won't go in gear
- Thread starter jmdlroach
- Start date
BPYellowTj
New Member
The clutch disc stuck to the flywheel or pressure plate. With the engine off I might put it in first gear and try to push the Jeep or rock it to break it free. Be careful when it breaks free the Jeep will move freely.
Edit: it does take two people, one has to hold the clutch down
Edit: it does take two people, one has to hold the clutch down
Last edited:
Same thing happened to my clutch last fall when I swapped the frame out. She was stuck after sitting for 3 months and I started it in gear to break it free.
Thanks everyone for the input! We tried rocking it and it worked! I can drive my Jeep again! Thank you so much!
Next time (this happens every spring on at least 1 of the tractors here) push the clutch in and have someone tow you (slowly) . If it doesn't come free slowly release the clutch and it will pop. In a perfect world you should have the clutch pressed in for longer storage times. I always felt that could harm the clutch fingers and would be a harder fix than a 10 ft tow.