952door4x4

Hi guys, just wanted to share my story of the past week or so and the trouble I've had with my clutch. The information here is for people with low engaging clutch pedals or if your having difficulty bleeding your clutch system. I'll put all the good info in the second paragraph, so just skip down there if your not interested in the back story.

My problems really started about a week ago. My clutch pedal started sticking and being very stiff for the first two inches or so of travel. After that first few inches it would act normally. I should specify that "normal" for my jeep is engaging about a few inches from the floor and often times after long periods of driving it would start to have a few grinds here and there. After giving it a few good pushes on the clutch pedal to try and push through whatever was hanging it up I just decided to live with it and replace my clutch master cylinder asap. I bought a new master cylinder through my work and the install went smoothly. I drained all the fluid and refilled it with some fresh dot 3 and proceeded to bleed it. I read a lot about people taking the slave cylinder off the trans, pointing the plunger towards the ground and pumping it a bunch of times to force the air up through the master cylinder. Didnt work. Next I moved to the bleeder screw, but quickly found it was rusted and stripped, great. I still had zero pedal so I bit the bullet and bought a new slave cylinder the next day. It was a PBR brand and it actually had a real bleeder valve on it just like a brake caliper. I thought this was the answer to my prayers, I couldnt have been more wrong. I got home and threw it in, took about 10 minutes, no problem. I started with the gravity bleeding method. I opened the valve with a little hose on it leading to a container to catch the fluid. I ran about 1/2 of a small bottle of brake fluid through it and figured it would be good enough. I buttoned it back up and gave it a go, no luck! I couldnt shift into any gears at all, it just hit the stops before getting into the gear. I gave a friend a call and he came over to give me a hand. We tried the normal clutch bleeding method, bleeder closed, push slowly on the clutch pedal, when they first push on the clutch open bleeder, before the clutch reaches the floor close bleeder. We ran the other 1/2 of the bottle through the system and still had nothing! I was out of brake fluid and patience so I called it a night. The next day at work I ordered an entire OEM hydraulic system from Chrysler. It came already filled and bled no problem. I got home and put it in, and still no luck!! It still wouldnt shift into any gears . At this point I narrowed it down to either the clutch pedal assembly or the shift release fork inside the transmission. I read up a little online and found that a lot of people had issues with their clutch pedals being bent. I took mine off at work earlier tonight, straightened it out and it works better than when I first got my jeep three years ago!

The issue ended up being a bent clutch pedal. I think that a fairly easy test to see if your pedal is bent is to take the arm off the pedal that connects the clutch master cylinder and see how straight it hooks back on. When I first replaced the master cylinder by itself I noticed that it was very difficult to get the plastic O onto the little arm with the cotter pin in it that is part of the pedal assembly. I had to use a pair of pliers to get it on, I thought it was just a tight fit. After I straightened the pedal out it slipped on without a problem. Chances are that if your master cylinder arm doesnt slip on easily your pedal is probably bent. It doesnt take much for it to be out of alignment. Even when I had the pedal out of the car it didnt look very bent but it was a little out of alignment. I didnt think it would help but man it made a world of difference. It engages almost at the top of the pedal throw which I think is just about right because I need to replace my clutch. Since the pedal couldnt go through the entire range of motion the new master cylinder I put in was never fully bled. I would think this is a common issue from the number of posts I see about people having a low pedal and trying to bleed it without any luck. Hopefully this helps out some people searching around on the internet to fix this problem. I know it drove me crazy for about a week.

pa96xj

Hey I'm going through the same issue you are. Replaced my clutch master and still nothing. I did notice it is very hard getting the plastic piece on the clutch master arm over the clutch pedal. Do you bend the pin or the whole clutch pedal arm or what to get it straight?

TABonifacio

Thank you so much!!!!

jeepokee95xj

My Jeep is a 95 with the AX-5 they didn't change over to the AX-15 till (i think) 97 or 98. Mine has been in the shop 4 days now. Started out as a clutch swap, but when my mechanic got it all back together, my pedal was spongey/sloppy and it wouldn't DISengage completely, like it had air in the system somewhere. This caused it to not want to go in gear at a standstill with the eng running, especially reverse. Anyway he spent 1/2 a day friday tryin to get it to bleed out and pump up with not much luck. I spent 1/2 a day Sat doin the same. When I took it back to him this mornin, I was pretty much of the oppinion that the Master had give up the ghost so to speek, so I told him it's prolly gunna need a master cylinder. He put a new master on it. Same problem, wouldn't pump up. He then called the parts house and told'em to bring a slave. He couldn't get the line out of the old slave so he called me and said, hey man im afraid this line is gunna break if I pull any harder, and I can't get the line from my parts people, so u might wanna check with the dealer to see if they have or can get the line. Of course he'd allready driven out the pin that keeps it from comming out, before someone suggest that we're stupid, lol. Anyway, when i called the dealer to see about the line they told me that they only sell it all together (the master, the line, and the slave) as one piece and it's allready bled and ready to go. Then he said "And I'll tell you the reason why we only sell it that way. It's because there's no way to bleed it. You can never get all the air out. O'Reiley's or Autozone will sell you a master or a slave but it won't do you any good cuz you can't get the air out and it won't work. I don't even know why they sell the parts." I was shocked and couldn't believe it, but i did't really have a choice at that point so I wrote the check. So anyway, from where I'm at, I say this: If you have any kind of trouble with the master, slave, line you might as well get ready to go to the dealer and write the check, and it aint a small one, because (from what they're tellin me at least) if u try to just change the master or the slave, ur in for a nightmare of wasted time and money. If somebody knows somethin different and is credible PLEASE by all means speak up and enlighten us. Otherwise, this is where we're at...

jeepokee95xj

Well?

For what? Did it work? Which parts did you bend?

jeepokee95xj

Well, Still no clutch...We put a whole new hyd. system on it (new master, slave, and line all together, one piece, from the dealer). That didn't help anything, so he pulled the tranny back out. We couldn't find anything wrong really, sept my clutch fork was a little bent. I then went back to Beaman Dodge and bought a new clutch fork and pivot ball. I hope to God that fixxes it. At this point, the flywheel, pilot bearing, clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing, clutch fork, pivot ball, slave cyl., line, and master cyl. are all brand new, and we can't see anything wrong with any of it, such as a deffective part or anything like that. I don't have a clue what else it could be. It was all working fine when i took it into the shop. Hell, my clutch wasn't even bad. I mean, it was bad, as in the throw out bearing was makin a heck of a racket, and everything was pretty much worn out, but it was working! It never slipped or anything and even against all odds, with a throw out bearing that was practically dust, it engaged and diss-engaged perfectly. Now, I've spent at least a thousand dollars in parts and labor and still no clutch. He's gunna put it all back together later this mornin, for the third time, with the new fork and ball. I hope that getts it working but i aint so sure it's gunna. The fact that it was working when i took it in keeps tellin me that he aint puttin it together right, but now that i've looked at all the parts, and how it goes together, I don't think there's any way that u can put it together wrong, and it work at all. Idk... wish me luck i guess. If this don't work ima start lookin for a Voodoo Shaman...

TABonifacio

My Master Cylinder was bad, and the pedal itself was bent! The master cylinder sprung a leak so it wouldn't fully disengage, and the pedal was bent so it threw off the engaging point. Chances are if your having a low engagement, one of the hydraulic parts has air in the lines somewhere.

TABonifacio

It took me months to figure it out...But eventually you get nuts when your clutch pedal engages 1cm off the floor. Lol. The pedal now sits just about even with the brake pedal now, unlike before where it was halfway down.

xjpioneer

I had this same issue! low pedal! couldnt shift into gears, this happened pretty suddenly too. I replaced everything on the clutch system (disc, clutch plate, throwout bearing & slave cylinder, pilot bearing, master cylinder) everything! I was pulling my hair out and chipping away at funds quickly! i looked at the pedal and it was cracked and bent. I pulled out the clutch pedal and had it rewelded. Iam currently waiting on pivot shaft bushings for the brake and clutch pedal, hopefully this finally fixes it. By the way... DO NOT, BY ANY MEANS BREAK THAT BUSHING FOR THE CLUTCH PEDAL TO MASTER CYLINDER ACTUATOR (part number J4007472), it is a discontinued item and nobody has these friggin things! I had to manipulate a nylon spacer from home depot to replace it. Good luck everyone!