Not too long ago, someone posted a question on how to separate the shifter-the portion inside the cab that Jeep calls "lever assembly," from the shifter portion which goes into the transmission which Jeep officially calls "lever gearshift." They were trying to replace the round rubber boot which covers over the top of the shift tower. I pulled mine off this past weekend and needed to separate them to clean, and to just figure out how it's done. The FSM is completely silent on this process. First picture you will see I have the upper end of the lever, gearshift is wedged under the jaws of a vice, but not gripped in it so to speak. A pickle fork can then be used to span across the lever at the junction point between the two components of the shifter, complete:
In the next picture which is of course posed, since it took a 14 yr old and an 11 year old to hold the rubber boots out of the way while I tapped upwards on the end of the pickle fork to separate the two portions of the assembly:
It didn't take too much force at all to separate these, but I was unable to separate them by just pulling apart. I did spray a little PB blaster down inside there to work its majic first.
It didn't take too much force at all to separate these, but I was unable to separate them by just pulling apart. I did spray a little PB blaster down inside there to work its majic first.