T-18 trans help

Over the weekend I ran Slick Rock up at Lake Alpine CA. everything work really good (I recently rebuilt the trans and transfer case) before and on the trail however when we finished and got back onto pavement I had problem getting into third gear and after several miles going back to camp the problem got worse and the last shift I made was out of 4th gear down to 3rd at that point I couldn’t shift into any gear (all locked up). I got the jeep to the side of the road and started looking into the problem, in neutral the trans acted like it was in gear and when I finally got it into a gear and let out the clutch the jeep was all locked up an did not move. We ended up taking the driveline off and towing it back to camp. I haven’t looked into it yet but I thought I would ask if this sounds like anything any of you guys have run across. The trans is a T-18

Thanks,
Chip.

 

Just a wild guess but what about lack of lubrication? Wouldn't that make things get hot and then expand and then jam up? This seems to fit in with the "several miles" of pavement.

Just thinking out loud. Check for oil in the gear boxes.

 

thanks for the reply. The oil level is up to the fill plug so I thinks thats ok unless it needs to be above the top fill plug?

Chip.

 

My T-14 has locked itself up on occasion. My solution was to take the cover off and put the shifter in neutral and then align the gears to mesh with the shifter forks and then reassemble. It hasn't happened in a while.

 

Could be a problem in the shift tower. Did it make any noise before it took a cr@p? T18s are usually pretty bulletproof. Two things that will lock one up are broken tooth between the gears or burned out bearing. I would think the bearing would make plenty of noise before it went out. Let us know what you find when you get the tower off. Good luck with it.

 

Hey Chip,
Sorry I know it's kinda off topic, but how was Slick Rock? The only time I've done it was a couple of years ago and we turned around about halfway in because it started downpouring. What little we did I liked it and was thinking about going up this next weekend and hitting both Slick Rock and Deer Creek, but I don't think I'm going to end up making it.

 

It was 100 deg. In my garage last night so I didn’t get too far. I took the tower off and what I can tell is it appears the third gear shifter ring is frozen, I didn’t get any further. I plan on draining the oil and taking off the PTO cover to do a little more inspection tonight..

Bob- Slick Rock was great ¾ of the trail you can do in two wheel drive but the last section is tuff not Like I remember it at all, if you can get through this the rubicon and the first part of deer creek will be no problem. Last time I went through deer creek we went all the way to Hiway 89 and had a great time but that was 10 years ago. we stayed at mosquito lake camp ground last weekend and everything was awesome (except the broken jeep part).

Chip.