• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Clutch problem, help!

bwickett

NAXJA Forum User
Location
SoCal
Here's the short version. 2000xj, 4.0l engine with NV 3550. Transmission needed to get fixed, so I dropped it and decided to do the clutch while I was at it. When I was putting the clutch plate back in, I got interrupted and may have put it in backwards. I didn't think about this until I had my transmission bolted fully back in and was reinstalling my T-case. Anyway, at that point, I thought that I might as well take a gamble and finish putting everything back together and see what happened. The second dumb mistake I made was that the Slave Cylinder push rod slipped of the cup that engages the clutch so when I first depressed the clutch the rod popped out and sprayed clutch fluid all over. Cleaned that up, corrected the problem (I thought), and after a 100 pumps of the pedal or so, the clutch seemed to have the appropriate pressure. I've driven about a 100 miles with everything seeming to work fine except for the slipping point of the clutch being pretty close to the floor. Well, tonight the slipping point got so low that the clutch wouldn't fully disengage. I parked the car, then moved it into my garage to see what the problem was and the clutch worked fine again. So, is it possible that I could have driven a 100 miles with the clutch plate on backwards and now it's crapping out? Or, did I screw up slave cylinder when I first installed it? The clutch fluid level appears the same level as always.
 
i think you may have installed it backwards because the friction material is offset to the hub and when you bolt down the pressure plate it tweaks the clutch disc. this could be why it is not fully disengaging. just pull it:gee:
 
Do you think I ruined the clutch disc?

Pull it and check the condition. I might be more concerned about the condition of the cover's fingers/release levers.
 
It's probably wise to check it if you have any doubt, even though it's a lot of work, since if you kill it you'll have just as much work and more expense. But I somehow think it wouldn't work at all well if it were backwards. I'd be more inclined to suspect the hydraulics. If you pump it does the engagement point change at all?
 
I pulled the transmission and the clutch plate was installed correctly. So, can I assume that this is just a dying slave and master cylinder? My Jeep is a 2000, so it looks like I have to replace both and can't bleed the system. Does anyone know of any other potential causes of my problem?
 
I pulled the transmission and the clutch plate was installed correctly. So, can I assume that this is just a dying slave and master cylinder? My Jeep is a 2000, so it looks like I have to replace both and can't bleed the system. Does anyone know of any other potential causes of my problem?
Sounds right. Although the system is available only as one piece from Jeep, you can get the slave and master separately from parts stores, under the Centrix brand. Of course that doesn't help too much if you can't determine which part is the problem, but it might be worthwhile pricing the alternatives before you go for the sealed system. Although it doesn't bleed in the conventional way, it can be done without a bleeder. The parts come with instructions.
 
You can drill out the slave and add a bleeder, it is already threaded, or "reverse" bleed the clutch, the directions are posted here on NAXJA.
 
Back
Top