Hey all, new member here. Looking for advice on a problem, sorry if this gets lengthy I just want to be clear on what I have done. I have had an 05 for about 10+ years and use it just around the house. No abuse other than pulling a small trailer around. Lately it has been getting harder and harder to get into low gear then it wouldn,t go at all. For awhile I had just high gear then it got worse and reverse became unreachable. After checking linkage adjustment and reading as much as I could find on the forums I determined that my problem must be shift forks or shaft. I pulled the engine, washed it and got it on the bench and first pulled the shifter 1/2 gears cover and there was my problem. Much condensation had built up under the cover from not warming the engine completely so many times and rusted - deteriorated the half gears. OK, ordered parts from ebay, while waiting reinstalled engine and while still waiting for parts fired it up and it ran perfectly normal-without the shifter input shaft installed in the cover. So I put all the parts in and I get a squeal noise that is real hard to tell where it is coming from. I pulled the shifter cover and the noise stops but I can feel a lot of internal turbulence coming from the crankcase. This may be perfectly normal but it is confusing why it makes the noise stop. I pulled the crankcase breather hose from the filter top and it feels like just a small amount of normal blowby but the noise continues. Is there another case vent I may have missed/plugged? I pulled the belt cover while on the bench and the belt and sheaves looked perfect so I just buttoned it back up. I do know I will need a new one way clutch soon from driving symptoms but one thing at a time. Any suggestions??

Welcome, what makes you think you'll need a new one way bearing soon?

I will get an unwanted coast occasionally while going downhill. I may have found the problem. One way starter clutch failure?? Do you think that may cause a squeal ? Starter running with motor ?

I wouldn't rule out striped splines on the fix primary sheave, my 05 had that problem. I can't see the starter causing any coasting problem.

The starter (if that is what is causing the squeal) is a completely separate issue. I had myself convinced that the starter clutch had frozen so I pulled the starter this morning and the starter clutch gear feels like it is working perfectly. The noise starts the moment the starter cranks and cranking sounds normal but just gets louder after engine starts and definitely follows engine rpm. Maybe this eve. I will try pulling starter while it is running? Some how I got logged in as Pete & Roberta, that's not me but I still have the problem.

Pulled the starter while it was running and the noise seemed to stop but it spewed oil real fast. Reinstalled starter and restarted but pulling the shaft from the shifter shaft cover reveals what seems to be an incredible amount of blowby or crankcase pressure but also releives the squeal. Confusing because the normal case vent hose has very little pressure coming from it although blowing back through it, it seems clear. Hard to believe the rings could cause that much blowby and it still runs and idles so good. I will do a compression check next.

Boy do I feel like an idiot now. After pulling the motor 3 times, a new water pump and new counterbalance bearings (yes , splitting the cases), new piston rings and cylinder, it boiled down to a small amount of gasket not getting scraped off of the shifter cover allowing the new gasket to whistle with each stroke of the piston but only after it was warmed up. I suspect that is when enough oil got up there to help the whistle. The only good thing about this whole experience is that all of the bolts and screws were a pleasure to work with because they all fit so well, were clean and simple. It was a hassle pulling the motor and many hard to reach fasteners but they all went in and out without much trouble. Even pulling the front diff forward was pretty easy. All of this could have been avoided had I pulled the shifter cover off first. DOH!!