clutch removal and replacement

[jonnywong]

well the general consensus here seems to be that i have a transmission issue. Im not sure what to think of this as my transmission is waiting at the shop for me with about a $200 bill for the tear down and rebuild of it with no apparent issues according to the mechanic. Now i have never dealt with this shop before, but my buddy is a mechanic and gives them high praise so i really have no reason to say they missed something but i guess its possible(they are a large shop and deal specifically with transmissions). As for draining the fluid in the tranny - one of the first things i looked for were some metal flakes or glittery appearance but saw barely anything.

Now the pilot bearing may be an issue but from what i understand I would here some noises regardless of when the transmission was in gear or nuetral or when clutch was in. My problem was when in gear and clutch up. No problems with nuetral or clutch pressed in. Dont think its the diff's because i was able to roll the jeep and it would make no grinding noises-besides the noise seemed to come from underneath in transmission area. Im just a newb tryin to get my jeep running again so any suggestions help. Also ill be looking into clutch kit and flywheel replacement so if anyone has a link where i can source them it would be helpful. thanks for the help so far

 

[ChiXJeff]

Well.... a bad pilot bearing would only make noise when the clutch is disengaged. There's no relative rotation when the clutch is engaged. There's no stress on the throwout bearing when the clutch is engaged either, but it may rattle.

IIRC, the stock clutches were built by Luk. I've got a Luk Pro/Gold in mine, with no trouble for years. You should be able to source a complete clutch kit at any decent auto parts shop. A manual flywheel might be a little more difficult, but shouldn't be that hard to locate (I've found them listed on Autozone's website.)

 

[joeyschribar]

my t-case is currently giving me this exact same problem, im going to rip it apart this weekend and take a look at it.

 

[lawsoncl]

If the pilot bearing were bad, you would probably see damage to the tranny input shaft. I have an AX-15 sitting in the back of my truck heading to the scrap metal bin because of this. I neglected to replace the pilot bearing when I rebuilt the tranny. About 30k miles later it started grinding going into gear and it felt like the clutch wasn't releasing. When I finally pulled the tranny, I found the input shaft torn up and the input bearing on the tranny very sloppy.

If you trust the shop and you didn't find metal in the oil, I'm inclined to think the tranny is fine. Next item on the list for the symptoms is the xfer case.

 

[jonnywong]

ive decdided im gonna do the flywheel, clutch and pressure plate while im there and then start putting everything back together. Ill take a look at the T-case once more before i bolt everything up and check the diffs for the hell of it.

I was actually hoping to find a problem with my jeep so I would have the piece of mind knowing what was wrong with it and then fix it, but looks like ill have to take the risk of not really knowing and see what happens when everything is back together.

 

[5-90]

When you've got the flywheel off, I'd appreciate one measurement - the length of the screws that hold the flywheel to the crankshaft (underhead.) I know they're threaded 1/2"-20, I just don't know how long they are, and I'd like to be able to source suitable aftermarket replacements (for instance, the 1/2"-20 screws used to retain the flexplate on the automatics happen to be the same as the screws that Pontiac used, which means that the ARP kit for Pontiac - 1/2"-20x.590", 6 pieces - worked neatly when I replaced the flexplate on my 1987...)

And, those are screws that should really be replaced anyhow, unless you're using something significantly better than OEM. Don't forget LocTite (#242 or equivalent) on reassembly!