Good ole clutch master cylinder broke!

[Bryan_o]

well the story goes like this. Friday night the wife is driving my 93' xj (i know i shouldn't let a woman drive the jeep!). Anyways, she get in the jeep, pushes the clutch pedal in and a nasty pop noise is heard. naturally she curses the jeep cause now she cant get to where she wants to go. so i start looking at what she broke. I found the clutch master cylinder had broke so i bought a new one and installed it today. here is where it gets sketchy, the pedal is not at all pushing hydraulic fluid through the lines and i can literally press the clutch pedal to the floor and back a million times and its not engaging, i have never ever worked on an ax15 or any manual trans for this matter and now I'm pissed cause i don't really have money to put the poor thing in a shop. anyone have an idea on what could have gone wrong. and maybe how to fix, help me please ol knowledgeable and wise people!!!!

[bigjim350]

Did you bleed the lines?

Sent from my nerdy smartphone

[4.3LXJ]

Times two on that one. It has to be bled. Do you know how to do this?

[Bryan_o]

I saw where the hydraulic line enters the bellhousing and also where it comes out, I was surprised to find that you can push and pull those lines in and out an inch in both directions; should it be like that. And I did not bleed the system I was not to keen on what I was doing.

[Mudderoy]

I saw where the hydraulic line enters the bellhousing and also where it comes out, I was surprised to find that you can push and pull those lines in and out an inch in both directions; should it be like that. And I did not bleed the system I was not to keen on what I was doing.

Yep, you have air in the lines. Air can be compressed, liquid cannot. So you press on the pedal and the air in the line compresses. It may not be the whole answer but it certainly is something you have to do.

It's pretty simple, at least bleeding brakes are and I suspect this is very similar.

[Bryan_o]

Going to attempt a bleed job on the clutch today. Hopefully this fixes it, if not I will make a video message for everyone to see what's going on, on a lighter note, its Sunday wich means tomorrow starts the same ole routine.

[Bryan_o]

so i bled the line today. and nothing. i think we got a serious problem, when i pump the pedal it just stays pressed in it doesnt return. at this point i have done only what i am capable of doing. i think its time for a shop to look at it. if all else fails i'm looking for a new jeep. damn now really isn't the time to spend money for me.

[4.3LXJ]

When you bleed a new master cyl it helps to bench bleed it first. That is you work it until you get fluid out the port. If you haven't done that, then get your sweetheart to work the pedal for you. Loosen the bleed screw and put your finger over it. Tell her to push the pedal down. Raise your finger. Put it back on and tell her to let the pedal up. I just use the terms down and up. Repeat until you get pure fluid out of it.

[Bryan_o]

well i am headed outside to try this, hopefully this works. now when you say get the fluid out of the port does this mean pump all the fluid out of the cylinder?

[Bryan_o]

So I did this and still the pedal gets stuck at the floor, and I should ask should the jeep be on or off?

[4.3LXJ]

did you ever run the master cyl out of fluid when doing this?

[cantab27]

Clutch issues- pt 1 - YouTube

might help

[Bryan_o]

i did not run it out of fluid. and the video prolly would help me if the dang thing would load the audio.

[4.3LXJ]

Can't run it out. If you do, you have to start over.

[Bryan_o]

hhhmmm so i have to ask the lines entering the bell housing. should they be loose i mean they are movable by an inch in and out. i dont think thats a good sign

[4.3LXJ]

Could be. Might have to pull that tranny and fix that

[Bryan_o]

well i'm on a short shoe string budget, like everyone else these days. should i attempt pulling the tranny on my own or send it to a shop. and if i did attempt this. would anyone be willing to come on out and help a fellow jeeper.

[DarrellXJ]

Hey, I'm new to this forum - been posting on a couple of others. Saw this and think I might be able to help.

1. The lines coming out of the bell housing are designed to "articulate" a little where they attach to the slave cylinder in the bell housing. Perfectly normal that they move about an inch or so - and I know it seems like a lot. No problem there - Do not go directly to pulling the tranny!

2. You can try to gravity bleed the master cylinder (there's got to be a post on bleeding the clutch on here). Have your wife stand ready at the master cylinder while you open the bleeder valve at the slave comming out of the bell housing (the short line of the 2). Open the bleeder valve a good half turn so that you're getting fluid through the line at a pretty good rate. She'll need to continue to fill it so that it doesn't go below the intake of the hydraulic line - that would let air back into the line and you do not want that. Once you get a decent amount of fluid through the line, which should chase most of the air out of that line, tighten the bleeder valve down (just till it closes, doesn't have to be muscled down hard). That should give you fluid in the line, and less air, and allow you to bleed it normally. Check the forum for "bleeding clutch" I'm sure you'll find the process.

3. Look in the footwell of the Jeep where the clutch pedal articulates with the clutch master. I broke 4 master cyliinders in 6 months before I got pointed in the right direction on this. The clutch pedal assembly can fail on the xj. The welds will break, or the metal will fatigue, and throw the geometry out of whack which will cause a break at the weakest point - the molded plastic end. It's a little hard to see lying upside down in the footwell, but the clutch pedal and the arm with the stud on it that the plastic end of the MC attaches to should be relatively parallel to one another. My was deformed only about a 1/4 inch and it just tears up that plastic piece. I'll try to post a pic of mine.

Good luck!

[bigjim350]

well i'm on a short shoe string budget, like everyone else these days. should i attempt pulling the tranny on my own or send it to a shop. and if i did attempt this. would anyone be willing to come on out and help a fellow jeeper.

I will come out there and check it out if ya need me too. Im off work on sun-mon and get off work at 9pm every other night.

[DarrellXJ]

well i'm on a short shoe string budget, like everyone else these days. should i attempt pulling the tranny on my own or send it to a shop. and if i did attempt this. would anyone be willing to come on out and help a fellow jeeper.

You can see in these pics, hopefully, that the "arm" of the clutch pedal is bent/twisted at the first "s" down from the top. The metal just fatigued and threw the geometry off. Try to make sure yours isn't bent, or breaking from the welds (that happens too). It can really be hard to see the way you have to contort your body in the footwell.

Hope it helps.

[Bryan_o]

Bigjim thanks a bunch, and darrelxj, I have a covworker willing to help me and if it works then for sure I willl put a write up on it, I have decided that fixing it myself no matter how hard (with the help of many) will benifit me in the future. So bigjim I will keep you posted I need a couple of days to buy parts anyways, but still thank you guys so much

[Bryan_o]

Good news, it was infact just my pedal assembly, I am sourceing a new one now! Will put pics up later

[msmoorenburg]

Good news, it was infact just my pedal assembly, I am sourceing a new one now! Will put pics up later

Pickapart by fry's has a Tan 5speed jeep

[DarrellXJ]

Great that you've found the issue. I had a tough time finding a clutch/brake assembly. So, few manual transmissions in the JY.

You have two options now, after you locate the clutch/brake assembly:

Replace the entire clutch/brake assembly.

Or, just replace the clutch pedal - your brake is fine - by pulling the pivot bolt, sliding the old clutch pedal off and replace it with the new. If you go that route (which I did) make sure you run a bolt through the brake end as you pull the bolt out so that it doesn't drop down. Make sure to check the internal bushings in the tube that the pivot bolt slide through. The replacement pedal I got had a good deal of rust in there and the bushings were sketchy looking. I cleaned it out with a little fine grit sandpaper and lubed it with some white lithium grease. Works great.

Also, be careful slinging wrenches around in the footwell. Lot of wiring there. Patience was the key for me, and I still almost screwed up a connection.

You'll have her back on the road soon.