Borg Warner T 86 shift idents

Just got my 1967 CJ5 back from some transmission work and was surprised that, just like before it went in, there is no "click" or ident between neutral, 1st and reverse. Unlike on the right side of the gate where you can feel a small click as you go into 2nd or 3rd from neutral, on the left side it is just open to the gear. If, for example, you move the shifter a bit with the clutch out you can contact 1st and reverse. On the right gate the idents keep you from doing the same with 2nd and 3rd. I understand that the T 86 uses the same gear for 1st and reverse and that gear simply slides back and forth when you move the shifter. But shouldn't there be some sort of ident still? Trying to get this tired old jeep back on its
feet...

 

I'm guessing you mean "detents" that snap into place to help lock the transmission into a specific gear. This is controlled by the shift top mechanism. Did you take the the shifter top in with the transmission or just the transmission? If you took the top in also then they should have looked at that as well when working on the transmission. If you did not, then they have no way of checking that out obviously. I have customers do this all the time and still have issues when it was the top and not the transmission that was the issue.

 

Make that detents! I took them the whole jeep. They may not have paid much attention to detail as they failed to replace the clutch and throw out as I asked and left me with some sort of major hang / pop in the clutch too. They say no detents were designed in the T-86 but I'm beginning to wonder.

 

Are there any detents in a B-W 3-speed shift top? I would have thought that the 'click' you felt was the spring-loaded shift dogs ("shifter plates" per Jeep) on the synchromesh hubs. No synchromesh (1st & R) means no click.

Does it come out of gear?

 

Remove the shift assy and move the lever thru it's position. You should feel the detents there. You have two shift rail and each rail has a poppet spring and ball that drops into a slot on each rail giving you the feel of the detent. HTH

 

Ok, looking at the '72 manual, the later transmissions have two poppet balls that are reached from the bottom side of the shift cover. Looks like you have to disassemble the shift top (remove the shift rails) to access the poppet balls.



This is something your shop should have done when they rebuilt the transmission.

 

I believe they left that off. It does not pop out of gear. Never time to do it right - always time to do it over...