AX-5 Transmission - No 5th gear or Reverse

[89JeepYJ]

Hello everyone,

I’m trying to revive my 1989 Jeep Wrangler with the 2.5L and AX-5 transmission. I’ve got it running, but I’m running into an issue with the transmission.

It will not go into 5th gear or reverse. There’s no grinding, no popping out of gear—it simply won’t engage those two gears at all. All other gears seem to work normally.

Before I go as far as pulling the transmission, I wanted to see if anyone has run into this before or has any ideas on what might cause both 5th and reverse to disappear like this.

Any thoughts or direction would be appreciated.

 

[machoheadgames]

5th and reverse are likely separate issues. 5th commonly slides out of place on the AX5 because it’s held in place with a cheap snap ring that eventually gives up under torque. Large tires with stock gears exacerbate that condition. I doubt anybody has that issue on stock size tires. Anywho, some aftermarket companies make solutions to repair it which I believe involves removing the transfer case, pushing the gear back into place, and securing it with a collar that holds it there. I’m not too in the know on that but I’ve seen it before.

As for reverse, not sure on that. Maybe the idler gear is broke? I’m going to assume you’ll need a tear down for that.

 

[Flyer58]

There's also a reverse lock-out pin which prevents you from going into reverse from 5th gear. My guess is the 5th gear fork is stuck in the engaged position and preventing you from selecting reverse.

 

[machoheadgames]

There's also a reverse lock-out pin which prevents you from going into reverse from 5th gear. My guess is the 5th gear fork is stuck in the engaged position and preventing you from selecting reverse.

That’s a good point. I have driven my YJ so infrequently lately and am so used to my truck that I forget reverse is on that side and had that lockout lol.

 

[89JeepYJ]

There's also a reverse lock-out pin which prevents you from going into reverse from 5th gear. My guess is the 5th gear fork is stuck in the engaged position and preventing you from selecting reverse.

Is there any way to troubleshoot/ fix this by going in through the shifter vs dropping the transmission?