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Help with clutch/transmision issue

941 views 8 replies 4 participants last post by  PetrichorJeep 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Hi guys,

So I drive a manual 09 2 door JK Sahara, and have never had any mechanical problems with it to date.

However randomly when on the road a few days ago my gear shifter started acting funny and was getting very hard to put into gear, and then about a minute later it just stopped working and I coasted to the side of the road.

Essentially, I can put the car in first gear while stopped, let off the clutch and it wont stall out. I can add all the gas that I want and it wont move, same with any other gear including reverse. Since it wont stall out I'm assuming that the clutch or gears aren't engaging to begin with.

I'm not a mechanical prodigy when it comes to cars, ive done suspension work to this one, but not much with the transmission.

So I'm just wondering if any of you guys have had a similar issue, or could help me diagnose the problem. from looking online I read that it could be the master cylinder or the pressure plate which applies the clutch that aren't working, but i could have also been looking at the entirely wrong thing ahaha.

Thanks for any help that you can provide I really appreciate it!
 
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#2 ·
sounds like an interesting problem...

the hydraulic clutch system.....
when you push the clutch pedal, the fluid travels to the slave cylinder and pushes the throwout bearing harder against the release petals of the pressure plate.. this effectively disconnects the engine from the the tranny.. springs in the pressuure plate supply the force to the clutch to couple the engine to tranny..

are you sure you are actually getting the tranny in gear when you move the stick?

sounds like you may have an issue with top of tranny with the shifter forks... or some more sinister in the tranny...

keep us posted what you find...
 
#4 ·
A problem with the master or slave (hydraulics) would mean you can't disengage the clutch and you would not be able to select any gear with the engine running.

You have the opposite issue. The clutch is not engaged to the flywheel (acts like you're pushing the clutch pedal down with your foot).
Sounds more like your clutch disc failed. The friction material could have just torn itself apart, so there's no connection between engine and transmission.
 
#5 ·
Essentially, I can put the car in first gear while stopped, let off the clutch and it wont stall out. I can add all the gas that I want and it wont move, same with any other gear including reverse. Since it wont stall out I'm assuming that the clutch or gears aren't engaging to begin with.
If you are sure it is in gear when you take your foot off of the clutch, then maybe the friction material on the clutch disk broke off. Maybe it got too hot?

The "getting hard to shift" part sounds like a possible pilot bearing or bushing but having never seen one on a JK, I don't know for sure. What can happen is the grease can dry out and start taking out the bushing or needle bearing.

How many miles on your rig? Not sure what average life expectancy is on our rigs
 
#6 ·
thanks for the info guys, ill definitely look into these things. do you think replacing a clutch disk is something that i could do over a day or two with a friend and a lot of tools? or is it worth taking to a shop?

the jeep has about 70k miles on it now, and as far as i know this is the only clutch, however i had no problems with it before this happened. didnt seem worn or anything.
 
#7 ·
No clue about what to expect in terms of clutch life in a JK but on the cars that I worked on regularly, average clutch life on a RWD car/truck was about 70k. Maybe you were ripe for a clutch anyway. I will let a JK clutch master advise you here.

I will say this, though, if you are running larger than stock tires and you have not regeared, you probably wore it down quicker than you otherwise would have. You would have to slip it more to get the jeep rolling and that would heat up the clutch more each time.

Do not replace just the disk. Replace the disk, pressure plate, pilot bearing and throw out bearing. You may want to take a close look at the transmission front seal and the engine rear main seal "while you're in there." Cherry out and lube the sliding surface for the T/O bearing on the trans front cover. Replace the front bearing cover and gasket if it's boogered up from dried up grease. Same for the transmission input shaft surface that pokes into the pilot bearing/bushing.

No clue what your abilities are but I would have a buddy handy to help you out and on that jeep trans (read: with heavy ass transfer case attached) you should rent a transmission floor jack or buy one at harbor freight.

Prolly a weekend project with breaks for family, eating, reading clutch junk on the internet and buying crap at the store you forgot etc.

Back in the day we would charge the customer something like 4.6 hours (right out of the Chilton guide) to do a clutch on a gen 1 RX7 (for example) and most of us could bust it out in just over 2 hours while still doing a quality job. The best time I ever saw on that job was something like 1.8hrs by an experienced tech with the tools and parts handy who was intent on improving his time.

My BMW E46 (FWIW) has 170K miles on the original clutch with no sign of slippage or difficulty getting into gear. Only issue is a chirping t/o bearing if I have the windows down and the music off - LOL.


edit:
you will need a couple of special tools. A pilot bearing removal/installation tool as well as a clutch alignment tool.
 
#8 ·
^^good advice here. I wouldn't tackle a clutch job if this is your first major repair (unless your friend is experienced). It's pretty involved. I've done a few FWD clutches in my garage by myself and it usually takes me a weekend and some of the nights of the work week. There are little things like a seized bolt on the exhaust that can kill 4 hours if you don't have the right tools.

A clutch kit is at least cheaper for the 07-11 Wrangler. Should be about 1k installed. I've seen dealers quote $1500.
 
#9 ·
yup. rusty old exhaust bolts suck.

you also probably want to get the flywheel surfaced. We used to have a flywheel attachment on the brake lath that would allow us to resurface the flywheel. If you take metal off, you need to take the same amount off of the pressure plate bolt surface as you do the flywheel friction surface. When the machine was down, we just pulled the flywheels and sent them to the local machine shop (where we sent cylender heads for surfacing).
 
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