Weird clutch/transmission problem 86 XJ

Help...

My son has an 86 XJ with the 2.5 and I believe the Peugot 5 speed tranny. He has replaced the entire clutch assembly (external slave) from the master (twice) line, and slave, plus the clutch, throwout bearing, pilot bearing, clutch disk and pressure plate. Everything is bolted in and the engine starts in or out of gear, but here is the problem....

The clutch will not disengage so that gears may be shifted (we have bled that thing at least 20 times - manually and with a mighty-vac pump), and ALSO when I put the tranny in gear and start the engine the truck won't move (as if it is a bad clutch). It grabs a little, but will not move the truck.

Any suggestions? We are going to pull the tranny out again tomorrow, but we need to know what to look for. This is weird. We both have experience in mechanics (he works for a major firm as a mechanic and I have been ASE certified) but I have never run into anything like this before.

My 2.5L 5-spd XJ was doing this, and after I replaced the clutch slave cylinder the problem was solved. This wasn't the first time it had been replaced, though, so I would make sure you check all of those lines and the master and slave cylinder for leaks. Probably you got a "remanufactured" one of these parts when you replaced them, and they could easily be just as bad or worse as the one you had in there already.

One thing you might not have tried is the clutch pedal linkage. I have no idea if it is even adjustable but if it is not applying enough pressure to the line no matter how many parts you replace it still won't work. Well, that's about all I could think of that it could be, other than simply a blown tranny.

I went through this same drill with my son's 86xj 2.5l. As I recall, the clutch pedal has to be pushed in during the bleeding process. We never got it bled properly and ended up taking it to a jeep dealer. Our 86 5-speed has an ax-15.

Thanks - but the weird part is that putting the tranny in gear - starting the truck - and no movement except some "pressure". It will rock a bit but then slips like the clutch is blown.

Oh well - have to pull the tranny again to figure it out.