Justin Gregory Martinez

I own a 1996 Jeep XJ sport. It's a bone stock 4.0 and a 5 speed manual transmission. I've owned the Jeep for going on two years and I've never had an issue with it. However, the clutch can be a little quirky some times. First off, it's a super stiff clutch pedal. You really have to push down hard and to the floor to get it to engage. This usually wasn't a problem for me, but now it's my daily driver and after a few days my foot and leg are sore. It rolls the the gears nice and smooth except for 2nd gear. Sometimes I have to be a little more gentle when shifting into 2nd gear. Next, some times I'll get stuck in gear if I keep the clutch engaged too long. If I'm trying to parallel park or if I'm stuck in traffic and my foot is engaging the clutch a lot, I'll get stuck in whatever gear I'm in. I'll turn off the Jeep and as soon as it's off you can feel the clutch disengage, then I can start it back up and have roll through the gears fine unless I keep the clutch engaged too long again. Finally, my Jeep will grind when putting it into reverse.

I've done some research on my problems but most of the forums I've read hasn't come to a conclusion for the specified issues. I've read about others replacing the clutch master and slave cylinders and making sure they bleed them to fix the issue with the stiff clutch and the clutch not getting stuck and not disengaging. But from what I've read this hasn't fixed the problems. I've also read that the reverse gear in the AX-15 transmission are unsynchronized so that's causing the grinding. Is there any way to fix the issue of the unsynchronized reverse gear grinding?

And yes, I've check for leaks and made sure that my fluids are all topped off. I know I've listed off some issues with my Jeep but it really is a great vehicle. I wouldn't hesitate to drive it cross country right now. These are just some quirky things that I've dealt with while owning it. Because of these quirky issues, I know how to combat them so they aren't and issue for my daily driving, but if anyone has had similar issues and knows solutions please share.

Thanks, Justin

BlueRidgeMark

Sounds like typical "time to replace your clutch" problems. I think you'll find that the throw-out bearing has worn some nice deep grooves in your clutch pressure plate.

The reason that fiddling with the slave and master cylinders didn't help is that they have nothing to do with the problem. It's internal to the clutch.

If your clutch is replaced, you may find there is no more problem with your transmission. OR, maybe there really is a problem there, but you won't know until you fix the clutch.

By the way, do you rest your foot on the clutch pedal between shifts, or at stops? That will wear out a clutch prematurely.

Here's what the major parts look like:



Photo courtesy of CarID.


If you keep your foot on the clutch pedal, the release bearing, A.K.A. throwout bearing, rides on the fingers and spins. This generates heat which wears out the bearing prematurely, and also causes wear on the pressure plate fingers.

This can eventually lead to the fingers getting deeply grooved, which results in increased effort needed to operate the clutch, and the clutch not being released completely, which causes you to have trouble shifting.


Grooved pressure plate fingers showing excessive wear. Bad things happen.





This one is worse!

Justin Gregory Martinez

That's what I was thinking was it's time to replace the clutch. And no I don't rest my foot on the clutch. I only use the clutch and shift lever for shifting only.

PatHenry

Agree - time for a clutch job.

The reverse thing is probably the clutch not releasing fully. It doesn't need to be synched since you're only going into R from a dead stop.

BlueRidgeMark

Cool. Even with correct use, it's going to wear out eventually. My dad taught me early and well about not riding the clutch, so I never have, but I've still had two vehicles get the fingers badly worn.. One was a 76 Honda, which I caught before anything really bad happened. The throwout bearing started squealing. The other was a mid 80s Nissan pickup. Went to pull away from a stop light and it went crunch and that was it. At 150k miles the fingers finally just gave up and broke off.