jdres123

Finally got my XJ situated over the past year with a decent used AX-15,new clutch kit,flywheel..etc. The other day I was at a stoplight and it must have not been engaged in 1st all the way and it SLAMMED out of 1st to OR the other day I was backing into a driveway and forgot the #1 rule of the AX15...shift into another gear before putting it in reverse and it grinded pretty bad. So fast forward to today... I've noticed a whirring sound when I put it into gear when I'm stationary with the clutch pushed in only, does not make the whirring sound in neutral or when the clutch is depressed, doesn't do it when in neutral but I noticed it will start whirring when I'm moving the shifter towards the gear I want to go in as well. Now the worst part of all this....I cant shift it into reverse unless I have the vehicle turned off or It will grind. I also noticed if I start the jeep in 1st with the clutch pushed in I get a very tiny lurch forward....this made me think WTF how is that even possible with the clutch all the way in? So me thinking I might get lucky I ordered a new master/slave combo because that's the only thing I never replaced. It rows 1-5 fine, clutch doesn't slip or anything.

doublechaz

Sounds like you are not getting full flutch disengage. Could be something with the hydraulics. Could be damage to the clutch or pressure plate from that bang. Hard to say without seeing inside.

Josh18

A good sign there's anything major going wrong inside the transmission is to just check the pan. If there are no abnormalities (metal flakes/ shavings) in the pan you can pretty much rule that out. I lost an ax15 after 230k miles of use and when it was on its last leg it was whirring very noticeably. Hopefully, the sound you're hearing is not the same and just has to do with the clutch. I ended up having to spend 2k on a reman I got from these guys https://reman-transmission.com/trans...des/?code=AX15. No more whirring or popping out of gears for now at least

agreen

Where is the pan on the diagram?

BwanaBob

Whenever I've had problems getting into gear, something like what you're
describing, it has either been the master or the slave cylinder.

My 98 XJ is on its fourth clutch master cylinder. I found they last about 6
to 8 years. If yours is that old, it is a good idea to replace it and the slave
before tearing it all apart again.

4.3L XJ

Since you cannot shift into reverse unless the engine is off, then the clutch is not disengaging completely. Is the pedal a little spongy until depressed further?

Bryan Tift

Sounds like clutch isn't fully disengaging. As long as shift fork, throw-out bearing, and clutch stuff was installed correctly, I would get a new master/slave combo and see if that fixed it.

These master/slave systems cannot be bled. I mean, they probably can, but nobody is usually able to successfully bleed them. I tried for hours. Ended up buying new combo.