Chero84

Hi, I have a Cherokee 99 4.0L. My clutch work fine when cold, but when it start to get hot, the clutch is fading (no slipping). So when it's cold my clutch will disengaged maybe 3 inches from the floor, but after running a bit (the problem arrived quicker when riding in snow or climbing hill or in heavy traffic where I need to shift a lot) it goes down right to the floor to a point that I need to turn off the engine to shift into first or reverse. I can shift while I'm running but it will grind going into second and third.

I've just put a new clutch kit in, while doing that I've found that the slave cylinder was bad, so I changed it. The new slave cylinder had no bleeder valve on it, but I've read the instruction that came with it and tried to bleed it the way it should (by pushing the pushrod by hand until no more air bubble in the master cylinder). That did nothing.

So I changed the master cylinder, thinking it was the only thing that could go wrong. But that did nothing to, the fluid level in the master cylinder always stay the same so there's no leaks.

Then I've bought a new slave cylinder again, with no bleed again...so I've drilled a hole where should be the bleeder, and put a bleeder my self, tried to bleed it that way, didn't do nothing

So I've put back the other slave (with no bleeder) and I've extended the push rod from 1/4" more to 1/2" to 3/4". Each time I extended the rod the clutch was feeling way better, and was higher, but it still get lower and lower has it gets hot. Some people told me that when they don't have any bleeder, that it will bleed it self by pressing the clutch pedal repeatedly. I've probably pushed it a 1000 times, slow, fast, long, short.

Anyone have a idea? Maybe bringing it to a shop for a vacuum bleeding? Was thinking trying Dot4 since it's heat related.

Chero84

Anyone? Could it be my pushplate? All my hydrolic are new with no leaks. Don't understand why the clutch peddal go down like that after a while a d then back up when the jeep is cold.

gdavenport0701

drilling a hole and trying to put your own bleeder in is not going to work. Leave the cap off when you are pumping the clutch. Pump it about 30 times and then let it sit for about 30 min and then repeat. Do that about 3 times then put the cap back on the try driving it and see what it does. If the problem repeats I would say you have a bad pressure plate and then its heating up it will not alow the clutch to work properly.

Chero84

I was thinking about putting back my hold pressure plate, it was not bad but I had a new one in the clutch kit. I think it will be my next step. That would explain why i don't lose any fluid

GearGrabbinXJ

I'm having the exact same problem. Exact same scenario, with a new clutch kit and slave, is you clutch kit from napa by chance?

Chero84

No its auto sense, same crap it was the cheapest i found. I've change the slave pushrod for a 1"1/2 longer, so the problem take more time to come, and when i'm driving on normal road its almost perfect but I still have a problem. Still thinking about replacing my old pressureplate

GearGrabbinXJ

I haven done my master cylinder yet but I have a new clutch kit in it and a new slave and sucks not being able to shift right!