jw953

A newbie here and I have a problem with my 96 SE. I pulled up to a stoplight the other day and could not get my tranny (5 speed) out of gear and found the clutch had not engaged although the pedal was pushed to the floor. I had to hold my brake to keep from creeping into the intersection. Long story short, I believe the problem is in the master or slave cylinder but the fluid level is up. Question: How can I get back on the road? Thank you all for your patience and any help.

JdoubleU

XJBeater

How far on the road do you need to drive? You could pump the clutch and force it back to neutral. Once you get it in nuetral just shift with no clutch, thats syncros are for.

jw953

I was luckily only a couple blocks from home and got there ok. I am just wondering how to proceed from here. I have read that the 96 hydraulic system is not serviceable. I am wondering if there might be a workaround without replacing the hydraulic 'unit', if that is in fact my problem.

trizzbizzle

dude i feel your pain! i had major troubles with my clutch system last year, resulting in 3 new slaves, 3 new masters, and 1 new clutch lol...

look at your master first, if its holding fluid there might be some debris that got in the line and is blocking it. disconnect the push-lock connector next to the tranny where the slave connects to the clutch line. take off your master cylinder lid. then, using compressed air (higher psi the better), force air through the line from where it is disconnected from the slave, up towards the master cylinder. do so until nothing comes out of the master but air. clean master reservoir thoroughly then refill, bleed system thoroughly, and try it out. this worked for me after i tried replacing everything else first lol. if that does'nt work i'd try a new master cylinder first. be sure to get an oem master though. its worth the money as i went through 2 napa ones in a couple months

not sure if your year xj has internal or external slave. either way, check around your tranny for telltale signs of slave leakage. if its blown, you should be able to tell by fluid on the transmission housing, usually around the joint where it butts up against the motor if its internal. if its external it should be easy to replace, internal is a bit of a pain as you have to drop the tranny. if you don't see leakage, and blasting air through the line does'nt do it, your problem is probably the master. good luck man. keep us posted!

Teal96XJ

I had the same problem in mine after a new slave and a whole new clutch kit it didnt do it as much but does do it a couple of times a week i just learn how to deal with it.......Although i will try to blow some air thru there to see if that helps any........

jw953

Thanks for the replies, guys. I got home from work and tried to pump the clutch a few times to get some pressure. I was able to work the clutch and shift to first and reverse but the engagement is right off the floor and it sticks again in gear. Another thing I notice is that my idle is very high and winds down very slowly. This condition has coincided with the clutch problem. It looks like I'll probably start with the cleaning of the line and bleeding the system.