Pick up a 231 crawl box from one of my club members, its a welded shaft and alum plate for block off

he was having this problem but thought it was his linkage

it pops out of low, sometime just putting the tranny in drive will do it sometimes it will drive 50' before popping out

stays in high fine


any ideas?

Mine did this on my regular 231 until I put in this new Novak shift linkage. It is just a way better shift and engagement in my opinion! http://www.novak-adapt.com/catalog/kit_sk2x.htm

H

i forgot to add i have no shift linkage hooked up
and it is clocked so the front output (now gone) is clocked up to the drivers side

shift rail trimmed for an SYE? maybe not trimmed enough?

you mean the rail that the fork moves on? it has been trimmed for the crawl box

Make sure that they nylon bushings on the shift fork are not worn out, and you might also consider a stiffer spring on the detent ball.

Make sure that they nylon bushings on the shift fork are not worn out.

^ this

If it was run low on oil or with dirty oil, the pads on the shift fork wear out, which causes the shift collar to wear into it and make a big groove. Next step is it gets too much free movement around the shift fork and will pop out.

It probably holds high range fine because 2wd and 4wd use the same range selection so there's a little more movement available...plus less torque to move the shift collar around.

My buddys XJ has been haveing simular problems.He had just put a rusty's 6.5 long arm kit on and we were out wheeling ,he tried to put it in 4lo and it wouldn't engage.4hi does work though.I thought it might be the shift linkage we adjusted shift linkage and it still wouldnt engage.Do you think the novak linkage kit will fix the problem?

My buddys XJ has been haveing simular problems.He had just put a rusty's 6.5 long arm kit on and we were out wheeling ,he tried to put it in 4lo and it wouldn't engage.4hi does work though.I thought it might be the shift linkage we adjusted shift linkage and it still wouldnt engage.Do you think the novak linkage kit will fix the problem?

I'd try to engage 4-low without any linkage hooked up. Drive around, put a load on it (with the linkage out of the way). See if it pops out, if so, I'd check the pads on the shift fork out. If not, I'd check the Novak linkage out.

H

WOW, this is weird I am having the same problem with my crawl box, except it does it in Hi. I just got back from 4 days of wheeling in Moab with no problems when I was driving home up the passes in Colorado and the crawl box sounded like it was popping out of gear under acceleration for a split second. Weird huh. Then when I was coming down the hill and the engine was slowing the truck down, it just popped out of gear into neutral and I was coasting in neutral. Pulled over popped it back into gear and kept driving. It happened about 5 other times in a 150 mile drive. I ma going to drain the crawl box and change the fluid and inspect. Hopefully there isn't any damage. Oh yeah, I don't have any linkage hooked up to the crawl box. I have to climb under the truck and manually put it in gear. Any thoughts???