YJ 5th gear pin troubles - he;lp!

[VirtuaSpy]

Hey guys,

I have a '93 4-cyl YJ with the stock AX-5 tranny. I switched from 31"x12.5 Procomp Xterrains to 32"x11.5 BFG AT KOs and use it as my daily driver. About a month ago (about 3 days after I went to BFG tires), I was driving and heard some racket, and it turns out that my 5th gear pin had broke off, causing the actual gear to slide over; so when I would try to shift into 5th, I would get absolutely nothing and it would actlike neutral.

I remember reading here about something like the 5th gear being added on to the older ax-4 transmission, so it is naturally weaker.

The same thing happened to me on my way to college this morning, 5th gear is again, useless. :furious: The good thing is, the shop who fixed it (they just replaced the same stock pin last time) gave me a 2 year or 50,000 mile warranty on the work they did, so that won't be a problem.

My question is, is there anything that I can tell the shop to do that will actually solve this problem??? Some sort of different part that will stand whatever force is being exterted? It's either that or lose my wonderful 5th gear and welcome the crappy gas mileage.

Thanks very much in advance and hopefully I can get this thing fixed for good!

[recurve]

It's not a pin, it's a lock ring/snap ring. It doesn't slide over, it slides off the shaft. Ask the mechanic if they always use a new snap ring. It's tough to tell a mechanic how to do his job but you might need to ask them to make sure they don't open the new one too wide installing it. As for keeping it from coming loose, maybe the ring can be tac welded to the shaft but never heard of anyone trying that.

I'd get it fixed and stay out of 5th unless going down hill on the freeway. If you are using the stock gears I'm surprised that you can even use 5th with 32's. I seldom used 5th with 31's. Even if you do I would bet that you could just stop using it all together and be just fine. You won't miss it. I replaced a guys AX-5 that had lost 5th gear. He was running 31's. I told him to quit using 5th gear unless he is going down hill on the freeway. He doesn't use it much anymore he tells me.