I have a 95 Wrangler and when shifting into 3rd with the clutch to the floor I hear and feel a slight grid. When I am in fifth gear and I let up on the gas the transmission chatters, almost like it is slipping or something. These problems appeared out of the blue. Does anyone have any ideas what it could be? I have heard I may have a bad synchronizer ring which handles 3rd/4th/5th gear transistions - I can understand that having to do with the random grinding when shifting into 3rd gear but would that account for the chatter in 5th when I get off of the gas? Any help would be greatly appreciated...thanks

Sounds like a bad synchronizer. You may also have a bad bearing.

I'd first make sure that your clutch isn't dragging when it's disengaged. Put the vehicle on a flat surface, brakes off, transmission is 1st gear with the clutch pedal depressed. Is there any tendency AT ALL for the vehicle to move forward? If not, I'd eliminate the clutch as a potential cause, and concentrate on the transmission itself.

Hey Flouris,
Trans problems are pretty much imposible to diagnose without a hands on inspection, so any help you get from us will only be a guess, remember that.
You could have a bad sycronizer, that would account for the grinding into third. Sycro's can only handle two gears at most. In your case you have a 3rd-4th sycro and then a separate 5th gear sycro. I wouldn't worry about the grind into third until it gets real bad. You can't just swap out a sycro, it's a big expensive job. I've been driving my 97 TJ for 5 yrs with an intermittent grind into second gear, rember that your JEEP is not a race car, shift slow and firmly don't jamm the thing in gear.
Don't know what you mean by chatter in 5th, so can't be of help there. You'll have to elaborate for us. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I figured opening up the tranny to replace a synchro would be expensive. As far as the chattering goes its hard to explain. When I am in 5th on the gas it drives fine and as quiet as a 95 jeep can be. When I get off the gas fully, still in 5th gear, and the clutch engaged (not depressed) there is a chatter or rumble right below my center console. It is not so much a griding sound that you get trying to force gears together but more of a rumble that sounds like a gear or something in the tranny is trying to catch but slipping. It is enough to make my truck vibrate a bit (can feel it in your seat) Could it be a bad U-joint?...or would that cause problems in every gear not just 5th?

yes it could be a u joint,
Big Jim <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

Yeah, that last part sounds like a drivehsaft u-joint. Someimes, when you are putting torque on the driveshaft, a slightly loose u-joint won't vibrate. But when you coast (letting the moving wheels turn the driveshaft), they will make noise. That's such a cheap and simple fix, I'd go ahead and check that -- probably have to change the forward u-joint on the rear shaft. If it were me, as long as I had the driveshaft out and on the bench, I'd go ahead and replace the u-joints at both ends.

Thanks for all of the help. I am going to take the truck over to get it checked out but I wanted to get some education on the subject. If it ends up being the U-joints, any reccommendations on aftermarket U-joints to put in?

In terms of the bad synchro - is that something to just live with...can any more harm come to the tranny due to a bad synchro? Just to make sure I understand the tech behind it, the synchro's job is to bring the gear you are shifting into up to speed right?

Hopefully this will turn out not to be to expensive of a venture...

Thanks again for all your help