Clutch problems

Its on my girlfriends 93 XJ 4.0 2WD AX15 that I have been driving to work since its more fuel efficient than my rig. My question is that on occasion she is difficult to shift and sometimes some grinding when upshifting to third gear and fifth gear can be difficult too but no grinding. All my experience has been on vehicles with slush boxes up until now, so I am completely in the dark.

I'm assuming that the clutch needs to be changed especially since my girlfriend learned how to drive a vehicle that had three petals on the floor in this one with 240 on the clock.

Am I correct in thinking clutch and if so what else do I need to replace? If not, whats your theory?

Thanks
stewie

If it's not all of the forward gears, I'd be leaning more towards the transmission, not the clutch. http://www.car-part.com does show quite a few more 2wd AX15 transmissions than I thought, a junkyard transmission might be an option rather than a rebuild. Sounds like a couple of the synchronizers might be worn. Any idea what kind of gear lube is in there?

I'll assume that you've already checked the fluid in the clutch master cylinder (external slave, IIRC.) If it's not the transmission, it might be a good idea to look at the hydraulics.

No idea what kind of fluid is in it but fluid level is ok

could be the sychro for the 3rd and 5th are going out, you can atleast try to frain the old fluid and get some new stuff, Pennzoil Syncromesh is great

If you drain & refill, make sure it's GL3, at least no sulfur additives. I run Redline MT90 in mine, but that might be more than you want to spend. The sulfur will corrode the brass synchros.

I run royal purple 10w-30 synthetic in my ax-15 (as do alot of people). Smoothed it right out.

Change the gear box fluid to Redline MT-90, and bleed the MC and slave and see if it holds pressure. If not, replace the MC and SC at the same time.

I run Mobil1 10W30 in my AX15. That, Royal Purple, Redline MT90, or Pennzoil Synchromesh are all safe.

Until you can do that, try rev-matching. If it shifts nicely when being rev-matched you have a synchro or bad fluid issue, though I guess a really really bad pilot bearing could make shifting a bit more difficult by applying torque to the input shaft even when the clutch is disengaged. I'd expect to hear terrible rasping grinding noises from a pilot bearing that bad though.

Another vote for MT90 or MTL

Penzoil Syncromesh - works great for me! I was having the typical issue getting it shoved into first, and sometimes second. Our temps here have been in the +20 degree range here for the past couple of weeks. Shifts smooth even ice cold. Love that stuff.