This vehicle is agonizing. After being in the shot for the better part of 3 months getting suspension work done (which was a fiasco in itself) I hop in and drive home telling myself, “yeah it sucks but man I do like this car it’s so much fun to drive.” I pull into my driveway and decide I need to straighten out for my wife’s car.

Shifter will not engage from neutral to reverse (or park for that matter).

I’m a broken man. I took it to my local shop as the suspension work was just too big a project to do in my driveway. It literally brought a grown man to tears. Now this. I love this car so much but I’m seriously praying for an act of God to rid me of this headache/heartache.

I just dumped it in 2nd gear and walked away.

What are my options? I’ve found a few tips for getting OUT of park but none to get back in it.

What could cause this? The car was backed in to a spot at my mechanic when I retrieved it…

 

Hey man it's not that bad-where did you look-in your garden?

There is even u tube vids about it.

https://www.google.com/search?q=jagu...hrome&ie=UTF-8

Re suspension work-if it took that long never ever go back to them!

 

I had my car suddenly not go into reverse or park also. I used a flashlight and looked at the rubber seal that is inside the J-gate mechanism and keeps dust out from around the chrome shift lever. A small portion of the seal had torn off and when the lever was moved up from drive toward reverse it slid into the way and blocked the shifter. I was able to move it over with my pocket knife and when I got home used long needle nose pliers to hold it out of the way while I snipped it off with a razor knife. It may not be your issue but at lease you should know not all problems are complicated. Also, I agree on the shop taking way to long to do the work on the suspension. I first thought you must have meant 3 weeks and even that was a bit much. Anyway, good luck.

 

I had similar, but it was a small bit of plastic that had broken away from the edge of the J-gate and got jammed in there. I removed it with tweezers and no problem since. It may be something like this, or some other obstruction. Inspect it with a flashlight, maybe it'll be an easy fix.

Otherwise take a look on the driver's side of the transmission. Look for some brackets that secure the cable to the transmission. The bolts are known to work loose and even fall out causing issues with the J-gate locking.

agree x 3

three months is too long for suspension work unless parts were backordered. Not much to do about that these days.

Good luck, @Cneukum , I hope you will soon find joy in your XJ.

 

Thank you for your indulgence and patience but the problem is certainly not the car itself but incompetent mechanics and maybe a lack of maintenance.

About the problem: the j gate is easily accessible and with a relatively high degree of certainty something is blocking the selector lever that does not belong there. Less likely but possible are problems with the lever cable to the transmission attached to the right side of the j gate block or its attachment on the left side of the transmission housing.

Im sure your will be able to solve it on your driveway.

Good luck.

 

Do a bit of searching on the uk and usa forums, this has been the subject of numerous threads in the past. Just search for J gate stuck or similar words, shifter etc.
I have had to replace the whole j gate with a used part on two occasions and in my case it did solve the issue.
I was told at the time that the j gate is slightly different if you have the supercharged engine, no idea why but just something to bear in mind.

 

Seems that we read about the transmission being stuck in park.
Have not heard, or read about one not going into park, or reverse.
Always something new to learn about these cars.

 

I misread the original; post and wrongly assumed it was an issue getting it out of park and not into Park, my mistake

 

I’ve identified the issue. The shifter came detached from the internal gear shift linkage. I was able to manually push and pull the linkage to select gears. Somehow this came detached AND the shift cams (?) and such got all discombobulated.

I was able to get the shifter situated but now I’m struggling with figuring out how to get it attached back to the linkage. Any tips? I’ve attached a photo as I may not have the proper terminology.