Clutch Problem

My girlfriend was driving home last night, stopped for a minute, and when she came back she had zero clutch pedal pressure. "Luckily" she was about a 1/2 mile from a service station, and had it towed to them before i could look at it. They said they could see no external problems and that the reservoir was still full. They suggested replacing the slave cylinder at 550 installed or the entire clutch assembly at 650. This sounds like something i could do in my driveway.. any suggestions?

Depends- does the car have an external or internal (inside the bellhousing) slave cylinder. You could try bleeding it first. I believe 93 or 94 was when they started using a 1 piece pre-bled slave/master unit (the 2 ends aren't detachable and its external). Mine has this, it took me just under an hour to change the external slave/master assembly. The internal requires the tranny to be dropped, and if you disconnect hydraulic lines you have to bleed them so much more labor intensive. If you drop the transmission, then its a good idea to get a new clutch since dropping the tranny is labor intensive. I would change both master and slave if you can't determine which end is faulty (the master was failing on mine) but I changed both since its the 1 piece.

it is a 93, but unfortunately it is sitting in at the shop right now, so i have not yet been able to see it.. she likes to go right to the shop.. last month one shop charged her 1.5 labor rate (because of a rust) to put in a new rear brake line after it cracked, and even charged a few extra dollars because the jeep uses metric fittings.

so anyway, i guess if anyone knows if a 93 is internal or external it would be appreciated.

I think that was the transitional year so I couldn't say what kind it has. Its pretty easy to tell, thats the best way unless someone here knows for sure. You can see the cylinder sticking out of and bolted to the bellhousing if its external.

'93 may have been a transitional year, but I believe in general the '93s have the internal slave cylinder. That means it is part of the release bearing assembly and you need to drop the transfer case, transmission and bellhousing to get to it. You probably can do this in your driveway ... the question is whether or not you really want to.

There is one other thing to check -- the hose between the master and the slave. I've lost the clutch twice. On the '88 MJ 4-banger the slave popped at a traffic light. Instant loss of clutch. On the '88 Cherokee, the rubber hose portion of the clutch line ruptured at a crack due to old age. The losss was not as dramatic or as instantaneous as the slave cylinder failure. I had about three clutch applications that were progressively "mushier" before there was no clutch at all.

If it's the hose, you should see ffuid dripping down the hose and hard line. If it's the slave, you'll see fluid running out from the bottom of the bellhousing.

Hope for the hose -- it's the cheapest and esiest to replace of the three possibilities.

A '93 with an AX-15 has an internal slave cylinder. You should be able to bleed the system at the bleeder nipple which you'll find on the driver's side of the bellhousing just above the hydraulic line that leads to the clutch master. If you know the clutch plate is in good shape you could drop the tranny and change the cylinder without a clutch rebuild. It seems daunting, but it's definitely a job you can do in 2 or 3 weekend days without any specialized tools. Do a search here on AX-15 removal for some pointers, stuff that will save you a ton of grief. When I dropped my '90 AX-15, I left the NP 231 transfer case attached. Total weight of AX-15 w/ TC is about 175 pounds, easily moved by 2 people.