Shift, damn you!

This morning I jumped in my jeep and tried to start it. The clutch felt real soft and I could not get it out of reverse(manual tranny) So I pushed the stick out to nutral. I then jumped out and filled my clutch fluid which was low. Pumped the clutch until it was tight and tried again.
Now My stick will not go in gear but when I try to start it, the tranny is still in gear. How do I fix this?

My info
1994 xj
manual transmition (stock)
4.0
130,000 miles
np 231 transfer case

Thanks,
Seth

Replace the leaky clutch slave or master cylinder or the line between them and bleed the system. Use OEM components, not aftermarket for this one.

If the clutch is stiff now. It's been about 6 months science I checked it last. (my bad) but it was low, not out. So I don't think thats the problem. I need to know how to get it out of gear and then get the stick back in tune with it.
thanks for the advice though.
Seth

Sure sounds like a hosed master cylinder or slave cylinder. Simple check is to press the clutch and hit the starter. If the vehicle moves, the clutch isn't disengaging. While it could be a broken pressure plate, that is not real common. Bad MC's are. I went with a Howes MC $50 and did a bit of adapting. It worked great and can be rebuilt for around $10. The other plus is that you get an adjustable linkage.

when I'm tapping on the starter, the motor is off right. If it jump's it the master or slave. if not then what? I am at work so I will do this when I get home.
And I do thank you for the advice. It really helps. I'm just tring to get every angle of it.
Seth

If I read your post right, the clutch now feels normal, and the shifter moved into neutral, but when you crank it it's still in reverse?

Sounds like you might have more than one problem? If you had a hydraulic problem, you should be able to get the trans into neutral. You may have to rock it if it's on a hill, but it should still come out of gear. Then if you start it in neutral, you wouldn't be able to put it in gear with the engine running.

If the shifter moved into neutral, but the trans didn't, then you have a shifter problem. But you should be able to push in the clutch and start normally. It just wouldn't shift.

Maybe the clutch wouldn't disengage, and when you tried to get it out of reverse something gave up in the trans?

Unless I didn't understand the problem. It wouldn't be the first time.

Sorry for the long post. But from a lot of experience, if the shifter moves but the trans doesn't shift, it doesn't matter if the clutch works.

I hope this make sense. It's been a long day.

I agree w/sgtmack ....it sounds like a clutch problem to begin w/and then when you shifted it out...maybe you broke something w/in the shifter. Did you have to push really hard to get it out of gear? Did you hear anything odd? I'd say something is probably broke w/in the shifter as well as a possible m/c , s/c, problem.

A 94' would have an AX-15 right? I have been through a similar problem on an 88' it wouldn' shift and the clutch would feel really soft and spoungy, It was a bad M/C replacing it was a peice of cake but bleeding the system was a royal pain in the rear. I would agree that if you put to much preasure on something that won't come out of gear it wouldn't be to hard to break a shift fork or the end of the shift lever. I would think though if that had happened you would here some thing that is very out of the ordinary when it gave.

Just my .02

Jerms

When i pushed it out of gear I did push a bit. Not a ton, I didn't have to use alot of muscle, but more than I ever have had to in the past to get it out of gear. The clutch fluid was low, hense the soft peddle. But once the fluid was full and I had pumped the peddle it was like normal. Is it that easy to breake a fork?

Man, I can't remember what years had the internal slave cylinder and which ones were external. My '93 was internal and therefore, it didn't have a traditional "fork" for the throw-out bearing. The bearing slides on the carrier sleeve, but the slave cylinder is mounted behind it - pushing the bearing into the pressure plate. I've since converted it to an external from a '99 TJ since the internal slaves are crap.

None of what you're describing makes much "logical" sense but it certainly must be happening so it's hard to know how to help without seeing the symptoms in person.

If the pressure plate was broken, then it would be like always having the clutch pedal pushed in - no tension on the clutch disk.

If the internal or external slave was leaking, you'd either get temporary use of it until it leaked down, or it'd squirt dry with each push of the clutch pedal.
Same for the clutch master cylinder. But, you'd certainly have clutch fluid leaking out of the bell housing area and/or from the clutch master in either situation.

If you're not seeing leaks, Then it's simply gotta be internal problems with the transmission. The wierd part is that you say you can press the clutch pedal down and it feels normal, but the Jeep jumps forward. This can only mean that the clutch is still bound up with the pressure plate.

I'm of the opinion that you have a bad slave cylinder that is slow-leaking and won't move through it's full travel enough to disengage the clutch. If your's is internal, you gotta pull the tranny. If it's external, it should be easy to check, just have someone press the clutch pedal while you watch the movement of the fork thru the inspection hole in the bell housing. There should be at least 1 1/2 inches of movement.

Hope this helps.

if the shifter is in the neutral position and the tranny is in reverse something for sure is wrong with the tranny...