Must have MJ upgrades for a cross country drive?

[Pete M]

honestly with a little practice you can drive it without the clutch.  put it in first, start cranking and the truck will start lurching forward under the power of the starter motor and eventually catch and you drive off.  after that you just need to match engine rpm and you can shift into the gears without the clutch pedal.  the big problem is if you come to a stop, you need to shut off the engine and start the process again to get rolling.  It's a pain, but will work in a pinch if you're in a place with few stops.  

[jazzyjeeper]

The towers have picked us up! They felt out the clutch and think the slave cylinder is bad. We’re on our way to Tulsa to get it fixed. Wish us luck! Any other tips appreciated too.

[rokinn]

A bit of additional info on that process that you might find helpful is when you accelerate try to find the point when there isn't a lot of pressure on the gears.  In other words at the point where you want to shift, at the top of your rpm's apply a little pressure to the shift knob and let off on the gas pedal just a bit and you will find the sweet spot when there is a kind of neutrality between acceleration and deceleration. ie no more pressure on the gears.  Allow the engine rpm's to drop a little and you will find the sweet spot where it will move into the next gear.  If you need to down shift give a little gas to the engine and you will find another sweet spot.  Takes practice.  Try not to grind the gears too much although you will inevitably get some of that in the learning process.

[eaglescout526]

Those internal slaves are garbage unless its an original slave. Try to stick with a Luk slave when the shop gets to ordering the parts for you

[Minuit]

Welcome to the world of internal slave Jeep ownership! On a sensibly designed (94 or later AX-15) system this would be fixable on the side of the road in less than an hour. The transmission has to come out for this one though, and the aftermarket ones make a Yugo look reliable.

[jazzyjeeper]

1 hour ago, Pete M said:

honestly with a little practice you can drive it without the clutch.  put it in first, start cranking and the truck will start lurching forward under the power of the starter motor and eventually catch and you drive off.  after that you just need to match engine rpm and you can shift into the gears without the clutch pedal.  the big problem is if you come to a stop, you need to shut off the engine and start the process again to get rolling.  It's a pain, but will work in a pinch if you're in a place with few stops.  

Thanks for the tips! Is this what’s called dry shifting? The tow guy mentioned that.

 

6 minutes ago, Minuit said:

Welcome to the world of internal slave Jeep ownership! On a sensibly designed (94 or later AX-15) system this would be fixable on the side of the road in less than an hour.

Haha thanks. So does that mean an 89 will take longer?

[Minuit]

1 minute ago, jazzyjeeper said:

Haha thanks. So does that mean an 89 will take longer?

The transmission will have to come out. Not hard, but not "roadside repair" easy either. They will probably want to replace the clutch too.

 

I don't know what the "book time" is but figure at least several hours of labor.

[Pete M]

still a chance that it's the master.

 

I drove my '90 home after losing all the clutch fluid inside of 10 minutes of leaving the guy's house that sold it to me.  thankfully it was a cheap truck and I knew how to drive the hard way.   I's also driven an extended period of time being stuck in 3rd gear after the peugeot in my 88 blew up.  where there's a will, there's a way with the old technology. 

[jazzyjeeper]

2 hours ago, Minuit said:

The transmission will have to come out. Not hard, but not "roadside repair" easy either. They will probably want to replace the clutch too.

 

I don't know what the "book time" is but figure at least several hours of labor.

You guys were on the money! They are replacing the master cylinder, slave cylinder, and clutch. Also had a power steering leak. 

[Pete M]

when you're back on the road, practice shifting without the pedal a bit.  ya never know when it might come in handy.  

[JustEmptyEveryPocket]

5 hours ago, Pete M said:

when you're back on the road, practice shifting without the pedal a bit.  ya never know when it might come in handy.

Truth there, although I would wait until you reach your final destination. No need to risk it while road tripping. 

 

I would also recommend that when you first try this, do it from 3 --> 4 --> 5. Get good at that combo, then try to master 5 --> 4. Get good at that one. Then try the rest of them. Slow careful process. And just like learning a manual for the first time, plan on lots of practice without nearby cars or big hills.

 

Good luck!

[mjeff87]

Holy crap....how did I miss this thread?  Your end point (Richmond) is my front yard LOL.

 

Good to hear you're going again.  I'll keep tabs on the thread to watch your progress.  You can ping me once you get closer to here if you get in a bind (assuming you're coming through the Roanoke area, that's about 4 hours from me....I can help you from that point if you need anything).  What's bringing you to the RIC area anyway?

 

I'll have a couple cold ones (beer/soda/water) here if you want to swing by.  What's your updated ETA now?

 

Jeff

 

edit:  If you're planning I40 to I81 and then up to Staunton to I64 in VA.....I81 on that stretch pretty much sucks.  Way too many trucks, lots of up/down hills, and your cooling system WILL be tested.  If you want, when you get around Roanoke, look for route 460 east.  It's a 4-lane divided highway (mostly) that's alot more rural.  It's a bit longer, but it's a much easier drive (specially in an older MJ than the interstates), and it'll bring you right about to the same place as I64, just south of Richmond instead of north.  There's a point around Farmville that 460 intersects with route 360, you can take 360 right into downtown Richmond if you want, or stay on 460 and come out onto I95, a few miles from where I live.

[silvertwinkiehobo]

Somehow, I may have got on the wrong thread? I was putting in my two cents on DMMs, but thought I was on another thread, not this one. So, since I can't seem to find a delete function, could a mod delete this, and I'll try to find the proper thread later? And, of course, delete this at the same time?

[Pete M]

4 minutes ago, silvertwinkiehobo said:

Somehow, I may have got on the wrong thread? I was putting in my two cents on DMMs, but thought I was on another thread, not this one. So, since I can't seem to find a delete function, could a mod delete this, and I'll try to find the proper thread later? And, of course, delete this at the same time?

 

just copy/paste the text into where you want and I'll take care of the rest later.   

[silvertwinkiehobo]

Okay, but I'm unable to that now, so if I haven't done it, just go ahead and delete them. Thank you!

[Pete M]

2 hours ago, silvertwinkiehobo said:

Okay, but I'm unable to that now, so if I haven't done it, just go ahead and delete them. Thank you!

 

I can move it for you.   which thread was it supposed to be in? 

[jazzyjeeper]

Soo we made it to Southwestern Virginia and are having problems again. It seems there’s air in the system that needs to be bled out. Pumping the clutch was working up til now but we may be at a standstill again 

 

The good news, I dry shifted once on the road! To get us to a safe resting area. Glad y’all alerted me to that option. Don’t really want to rely on that for the rest of the drive though. Any tips? @Pete M @JustEmptyEveryPocket anyone else? Thanks!

[jazzyjeeper]

Also just looked under the hood and I think the clutch fluid is pretty gone, below the low marker. The cap seal appears to be cracked  

 

Bummed after dishing out cash to have it fixed!!

[eaglescout526]

I just talked with @CoastChief about your issue and he told me what you found. Once you get good at dropping the trans under 40 min it gets old. Pretty much all slave cylinders are junk right out of the box. Biggest problem with them is the U-clips that hold the metal hoses to the slave. If those arent replaced with something better or pushed down more securely, the pressure from the clutch master and lines will cause one of those internal slave lines to fail. Check the bell house and see if theres a mass amount of brake fluid dripping right there. 

 

I had been in your spot once where I lost all fluid and the u-clip popped out and popped the hose out of place. Also check the lines too for a failure from the master to the union fitting for the slave cylinder.

[jazzyjeeper]

I’m not seeing fluid leaking in large amounts... but the repairs were done maybe 800 miles ago. 
 

This is what I’m looking at:

 

[eaglescout526]

Bad cap wouldn't be the cause of failure. The purpose of the cap is to keep debris and air from making the brake fluid go bad on ya.

[jazzyjeeper]

31 minutes ago, eaglescout526 said:

I just talked with @CoastChief about your issue and he told me what you found. Once you get good at dropping the trans under 40 min it gets old. Pretty much all slave cylinders are junk right out of the box. Biggest problem with them is the U-clips that hold the metal hoses to the slave. If those arent replaced with something better or pushed down more securely, the pressure from the clutch master and lines will cause one of those internal slave lines to fail. Check the bell house and see if theres a mass amount of brake fluid dripping right there. 

 

I had been in your spot once where I lost all fluid and the u-clip popped out and popped the hose out of place. Also check the lines too for a failure from the master to the union fitting for the slave cylinder.

Where is the bell house? If I poured clutch fluid in could I drive for a while?

[eaglescout526]

Bell house is under your truck, its the housing for the clutch and often looks like a bell and its what mates the transmission to the engine. You could pour brake fluid down the master and see what happens. Just listen for a leak on the ground if your slave failed.

[Pete M]

all it takes to bleed the system is a wrench and a helper to push the pedal   and sometimes you don't need the helper.  once you get it bled and working again, try not to hold down the clutch pedal any more than absolutely necessary (especially at stop lights).  pushing on that pedal is what pushes the fluid out so the less you do it, the longer it'll last.  then it's a matter of monitoring it and topping it off as needed with more brake fluid.

[OldManComanche]

look for fluid on top of the fuse box, (inside the cab) leaking from the clutch master cylinder. Common problem that causes several more problems. If it is put a rag or something to keep the fluid from getting into the fuse box.