Alright so as the title suggests, just like every other ax15 owner out there I'm having issues with mine, and yes its the typical hard shift/clutch failing to disengage. Now its always been a hard shift, no surprise there, but lately the clutch has been completely failing to completely disengage causing drivability issues and my wife is getting more and more irate each and every time I steal her truck to go to work because I cant get my Jeep into gear. So here's what's going on and what I've done so far. Symptoms: Clutch chatter/noise and the Jeep try's to lurch and buck with the clutch "disengaged" when at a stop and try's the same when first accelerating. The Jeep has 139,xxx miles on the clock and the clutch was replaced by PO around 100,000 miles. I've tried bleeding the hydraulics with no change and I've replaced the hydraulics with no change. With that I'm putting my dollar on either something inside the bell housing or something internal. Now before everyone here gets all try google or try the search feature on me, I have. I spent hours going through old threads on naxja, jeepforum, cherokeetalk, and here. All of them describing the same issues but they all seem to end before a definitive culprit is found. So either this problem is not solvable or people just don't post when they find the answer. So what's the deal, I know someone out there with this problem has the answer in their pocket. I really don't want to replace everything in the housing if I don't have to. Any input is much appreciated

 

the problem I had was my slave cyl went out on me. I could not get it into gear. I had to start it in gear from a stop so I could make it to a parking lot. on my 90 its inside the bell housing. and was 20 bucks less then a complete clutch kit. so I replaced the whole thing. sad part is the clitch looked brand new. (I only had it about a month ) I think the previous owner did the clutch but not the slave. good luck hope it its a lil. david

 

I've already tried replacing the slave, along with the master cylinder and hydraulic lines and it didn't help at all. Which is why I'm thinking something internal or in the bell housing. I guess I should have mentioned before its a 98 so the slave is external

 

"the clutch was replaced by PO around 100,000 miles"

Got a receipt? If not, pressure plate is probably worn out & the flywheel could be paper thin to. Unless you pull the transmission and actually have a look, your just shooting blanks. Time to get off the computer and get dirty.

 

How's the clutch pedal look? Cracked or bent?

 

I do actually have the receipt. The PO was kinda OCD and saved all that stuff in the owners manual. The work was done at a Mercedes Dealership in Germany and from what I could translate it said Clutch pack, Complete, serviced at 161872km (100583mls). Im not sure what their definition of clutch pack is but I would bet it didn't include the flywheel. As far as "getting my hands dirty", I have no problem doing that. The only problem is with my work schedule I typically don't have time to do exploratory work on my Jeep, I have to know exactly what I'm doing and have all parts on hand when I do anything, an if it can't be done in one day I cant do it myself

 

Clutch pedal itself is fine. Everything external as been either inspected or replaced

 

Probably not DIY for you then, it's not hard to R&R everything in a day but.....you'll more than likely have to take it to be serviced. Or wake up early one day with all parts on hand and have at it. Check to see if there is any problem returning the unused parts after.

 

I'm trying to avoid taking it in. That's why I'm looking for everyone's input, or if someone out there had this issue and resolved it and could put their 2 cents in. I just have a hard time justifying 800 to 1500 bucks for a shop if it ends up being a 15 dollar bearing

 

Not sure if these have the same clutch fork issues that the older fords had. But this is very similar to the issue that I've seen happen to 2.3 mustangs when the clutch fork craks/breaks.

 

With tranny in gear push clutch in does it roll easy ? With tranny in gear clutch in when starting does it wanna move ?

 

The symptoms described match exactly what happened to my corolla 2 months ago (I know, I know NOT a Jeep ! ) we went to a Toyota specialist who said it was the slave cylinder ( no it wasn't ).
Another mechanic said bent or broken clutch fork.
I pulled the gear box and this is what I found !!!!



With these teeth broken, the clutch will not completely disengage
Multiple qualified mechanics did not diagnose this and the Toyota mechanic even said I was trying to make him look bad to his boss by bringing in a clutch from a wrecking yard.

 

It does roll, but I can hear some noise coming from underneath. And yes it try's to move, doing the same lurching and bucking like when I'm at a stoplight or such.

Looks like I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and tear my jeep apart, hopefully the wife will understand when she's without a vehicle for a couple of days haha

 

I seriously think that when you open it up you will find a similar problem to mine, if the springs or spring tines on the pressure plate are damaged it won't disengage the clutch properly. Mine got so bad that when starting I had to have it in gear because I could not put it in first after starting.
The car would lurch forwards starting in first with the clutch pedal to the metal and if I put my foot on the brake at the same time it couldn't start. To change gears I had to judge the revs. Had to put it in first gear before stopping at lights. Had to make sure that wherever I stopped the engine I could lurch down a hill to start (forward or reverse).


If you can find a workshop or someone with a snake inspection camera, you can have a look inside the bell housing and prove or disprove any number of theories.
Chances are, no matter what happens, you will need to remove the gearbox.

Good luck

 

Have you fixed your 'box yet ? What was the problem ?