98 XJ Ax-15 Problems

You mean the slave rod facing down and slow hand pumping about 50 times?

I think that is one way to do it. I always bought sealed units so I wouldn't have to mess with it.

Yeah its still together and ive tried pumping it alot before and theres no change at all. If i had to guess now i would say the clutch is just about wore out.

NchsaXJ said:

Do i just take the 2 rubber boots off to fill it through there or is there more i have to take apart?

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the two rubber boots, then grab the ring that retains the shifter and move it a 1/4 turn, then the shifter should pop right out.

you also may want to consider replacing the shifter busing while you are at it, mine had nearly disintegrated.

Well i changed the fluid and it didnt really change anything. The fluid that came out didnt look bad either but the magnet did have some metal shavings that were very small. It was like goo on the magnet.

At 260k miles, worn out synchros are likely especially if someone used GL-5 gear oil which slowly eats the brass syncros. If it feels like the clutch isn't fully disengaging, you might also suspect the bearing that goes into the end of the crankshaft. The clutch was replaced on my comanche right before I bought it and they didn't replace that (the previous owner sold it because the clutch replacement didn't fix the problem, and they claimed it just needed a new clutch). I didn't think to replace it when I rebuilt the trans and it eventually seized and destroyed the trans input shaft bearing.

Yeah i bet that bearing is part of the problem as well as the syncros. Looks like its all coming apart as soon as i get time. It still confuses me why its only bad once the motor is warm though.

NchsaXJ said:

It still confuses me why its only bad once the motor is warm though.

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Heat changes tolerances?

Green XJ Jeep said:

Heat changes tolerances?

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Plus the gear oil thins out as it warms up.

It's been a really long time since I rebuild mine, but as I recall when I ordered the rebuild kit, they asked for the serial number off the trans as the reverse synchro changed at some point? The rebuild kit I got do not include the main input bearing which was $90 by itself at the time. It had all the seals, synchros, and other shaft bearings. At 280k miles you probably want to replace the input bearing. Consider pulling the clutch and replacing the pilot bearing in the end of the crank. I did my rebuild with a gear puller and a bearing separator over a weekend. I modified the gear puller to make the arms about 12" long at one point. A real bearing press would have been very helpful.

After the rebuild, I put cheap GL-3 in it, planning to change it out after a week. It shifted so bad I thought I screwed up the rebuild. Changed out the fluid to a 50/50 mix of MTL and MTL-90 and it shifted fantastic after that. 30k miles later the pilot bearing seized, tore up the end of the input shaft and the input bearing was really sloppy. I had a aw4 sitting in the garage, so I converted to an auto.