Hi I just joined these boards because I have been banging my head against a problem I have on my 97 4cyl wrangler.

A long story short my jeep was towed. Chances are that is was pulled backwards out of the parking spot while it was in first gear. I have no idea what happened after that, I can only hope that the tow truck driver took it out of gear or it was on a flat bed for the rest of the trip.  

The problem that I have now is that it takes some serious muscle to shift into first and second and will grind when going into reverse. It will drive in all gears and it is easy to shift from 3rd up to 5th, but it just feels like it is misaligned.

Worst case scenario is a new trans, and that is no big deal. But I have been asking around and have heard so many different answers that, short of pulling the trans, I am not sure how to approach the problem. Someone told me it could be syncros, or bushings, or forks. Now I may not be the best mechanic out there but if you give me a book I can pretty much change out any part on the car.

I was just hoping that someone might have had a similar issue and be able to give me an idea of what I need to pull or diagnose to fix the problem before I do more work than I need to.  

I was just searching the forums and it sounds very similar to a shifter problem, possibly something to do with the bushing in the retainer bracket. what do you guys think?  

could be the bushing. did ya chage out the old fluid yet?  

i have the same problem but i personally think mine has to do with the fact that every month when i change my trans fluid cuz the fluid is nice and milky white cuz of the water that seems to be finding its way in there... ive done everything that to keep the water out of there but its still sneaking in there.. im working on swapping in a new on once i get all the parts and my new TC set up.. cheaper for me to just get a newer better on then to fix the one i got.