Shifting issues ... help

OK 1994 XJ 4.0 / ax5

Roll up to a stop slide into neutral , wait at light. Depress clutch attempt to engage shifter into 1st gear. Will NOT go into gear.
Will not go into any gear without a struggle. This is not a everytime occurance. Anythoughts ? Thanks!

Sounds like the clutch isn't disengaging sufficiently to get past the synchro in 1st gear. Maybe weak hydraulic clutch cylinder, or worse, pressure plate?

could be the slave cylinder. mine did this for about two days before completely locking up. it especially sucked because i was waiting on new em. brake cables. thank god i had some tire chalks in my jeep.

how is the pressure when you depress the clutch?

I would guess it is your slave clutch cylinder, if not, then it gets more expensive.

Does it have trouble shifting into all gears?? Is so, then I would bet on the slave cluth cylinder. I replaced mine about 2 months ago as I was having shifting woes.

Now there are two thoughts on the source to buy them from. Some say get it from the factory only. Factory comes with master, slave, hose. I got my slave cylinder from O'Rileys ('96 model). It cost around $44 and has a limited lifetime warranty. Other places wanted $100 just for the slave cylinder.

One bit of warning from the one from O'Rileys it does not come with the bleed hole all the way through into the cylinder, but does have the threaded area on the housing.

I ended up hooking up the hose to my new slave cylinder - refilled the master cylinder with fresh fluid and then began working the plunger on the slave cylinder. I refilled the master a few times and repeated the plunging until no air was visible in the master. Then I mounted the slave. There is a little plastic braw that holds the plunger for ease of installation - leave the braw in place as the little tabs will break off as soon as you push the clutch pedel in after mounting.

It is an easy replacement, just be sure to have a catch pan for the clutch fluid and a new can to refill the master. The hardest part is to remove the cross pin that retains the hydraulic hose.

BTW - if you have a leak in the hose or master, then you will need to buy the whole master, slave, hose from the dealer as it comes as a complete set. Don't remember the price.

Master

I would first start at the master cylinder and work your way down to the slave. The master cylinder is made of aluminum and is prone to wear out quickly (read they're JUNK). I've had mine for 2 years and I've rebuilt it once and replaced it once. If I still had a machine shop I'd sleeve it. The slave is steel and is less prone to wear except that the master cylinder bleeds aluminum gunk into it. Open up your master cylinder and see if there is some muddy aluminum junk in the resevoir. If there is plan on changing the master and at least rebuilding the slave. To get to the slave plan on removing the crossmember and drivelines and undoing the transfer case linkage and drooping the transmission down as far as you can. When you put it back in make sure the slave fits back into the throwout mechanism or you'll tear your hair out trying to figure out what's wrong.