Clutch replacement - brands to avoid?

Well, I finally, after a month and a half of letting it sit, got around to opening up my poor dead 99, whose throwout bearing went to pieces. Anyway, I found little bits of throwout bearing, one part of the bearing body jammed sideways into the lever, and another part of the bearing jammed into the diaphragm spring. I think the whole episode might have been triggered by the bearing eating into the diaphragm, so anyway, it looks as if I need a new clutch. I'm off to cruise the parts places tomorrow, I guess, but I figure I'd ask the experienced if there are any clutches either to seek or to avoid. Just standard duty, no ultra-performance stuff needed.

Here's a picture. Note the way the lever wore almost all the way through against the pressure plate!

For the top tranny bolts, I welded a torx head bolt into a worn out socket:



It's a pity the diaphragm is messed up. After 225+ thousand miles, the clutch itself was fine.

Luk cluthes are very good and are fairly cheap (140 bucks) I got one comin in tom. from auto zone.

when I replaced mine I used the replacement (96) one from NAPA, comes as a whole kit with alignment tool, shifts perfect and I am waaaaay under geared so I have to ride it a bit.

doug

I use Centerforce and like them, but any "name brand" will work, or use the OEM. Whatever you do, don't cheap out on this. It's WAY to hard to get to. "Sorry, we'll replace it for free." doesn't mean jack when you have to pull the trans back out.

Don't get any "drag race" clutch disc, no matter the quality. They're made to slip and have a pretty small contact patch.

Nice take on the torx socket,... 'You going to re-use the star bolts, or replace 'em with 6-points?

i have a 99 with 76k on it and i drive like a grandpa ur saying i can go well over 100k with out replacing clutch?? if soo sweet

gm tech said:

i have a 99 with 76k on it and i drive like a grandpa ur saying i can go well over 100k with out replacing clutch?? if soo sweet

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I think so. The disk on this one is nowhere near worn out. This one is over 225K, and my 95 is at about 263K, also on original clutch (or so I suppose, since I got it at 110K).

Both NAPA and Carquest had "Perfection" brand, with carquest 50 bucks cheaper for the same set and in stock, so Perfection it is. Looks adequate. If nothing else, at least the fingers on the diaphragm are all there. Still awaiting a new release fork from Jeep, due in tomorrow. Probably won't be back to it for another week, owing to guests, etc. but at least there's a new clutch attached to my engine.

While we r on the topic i have a centerforce that I pulled from my wrecked 96 and want to put it in my 99 it only had like 10, 15k topps but I was hard on it. What ways can I see how much wear I put on it and if anything needs to be replaced

kenny schmitt said:

While we r on the topic i have a centerforce that I pulled from my wrecked 96 and want to put it in my 99 it only had like 10, 15k topps but I was hard on it. What ways can I see how much wear I put on it and if anything needs to be replaced

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I'd look at the pressure plate and see if there are signs of overheating, blue spots, etc., and at the disk to see if the radial grooves are still reasonably deep and even. Of course some signs of heating are normal, but you should be able to spot an abused clutch. It should take a pretty poor clutch technique to kill an XJ clutch in 15 thousand miles. My 99 went to 231K before the throwout bearing failed, and my 95 is still working fine at 263.

Mine is back together as of this afternoon, finally, and shifting like a champ. Not really such a hard job in the technical sense, but tedious and time consuming due to all the things you have to take off and apart.

Just as an aside, despite what the 99 FSM says, you don't have to take the transfer case and tranny apart, if you have a good transmission jack. I took the time to make a custom mount for my trusty old tranny jack, bolting it straight to the four holes that hold the plate for the mount. At that point, it's well balanced, and you can take the whole thing off in one piece. Taking the time to make a solid jack mount made mating clutch and transmission a ten minute job.

You can also leave the exhaust in one piece, if you undo all the brackets. Just remember to mount the exhaust back up before you put the crossmember back on! (guess how I know this....:banghead

note to tbburg: Yes, I reused the nasty star bolts. When I bought the new clutch, I bought the correct socket (e 12, I think), which only cost 3 bucks and change. Regular hex bolts can be hard to engage without slipping and chewing up when you're groping upside down in the dark with two feet of wrench extensions. The inverse torx heads actually work very well and positively when you have the right tool, so I kept them.

The replacement slave cylinder I got came with good directions for bleeding without a bleeder, and a clever plastic strap that holds it together and in line when installing and then breaks off when you push the pedal the first time.

Finally, with regard to taking the shifter off the AX 15 transmission, the instructions are easy enough to follow ( shift into 1 or 3, lower the tranny a bit, slip the boot off, and rotate the lock ring counter clockwise while pushing it down), but omit a vital step when putting it back. In order to get that ring back on, you must not only "insert" the shifter back into the tranny, but push it down until it snaps in. If you don't you'll never get that damn ring down.

gm tech said:

i have a 99 with 76k on it and i drive like a grandpa ur saying i can go well over 100k with out replacing clutch?? if soo sweet

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311k on original clutch from the Cherokee I got from my dad, and it was still going when they got rid of it.