Wacky Clutch

LOL!

Haven't done that for a while, funny....

It froze on. Literally.

Hit any puddles just before?

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Peter P>

No, no puddles that I recall. They would have been frozen anyway. It hasn't been offroaded since before freeze-up, so it's not like I just did some fording or something.

I can't say I've ever heard of a clutch being literally frozen before.

So the intermittent warm idle "thunk thunk thunk" from the bellhousing and the new bunch-of-marbles-rattling-in-a-can-when-coasting-with-clutch-in sounds are unlikely to be related to this disengagement anomaly? (The new bunch-of-marbles-rattling-in-a-can-when-coasting-with-clutch-in sound is not the same as the old bunch-of-marbles-rattling-in-a-can-when-in-neutral-with-clutch-out sound. The latter is standard NV3550 fare I gather.)

/Peter

Ouch....

That could be something like a broken part that jammed the slave before falling to the bottom. Does yours have an inspection plate on the bottom you can open to see if any 'fingers' are laying around down there?

Mike

Peter P>

My first guess was... air lock in the hydraulic line. But you have rattle... that ain't right!. The $teeler not hear that? Mine don't do that (different tranny, but still?)!

I just picked it up from the "there's nothing wrong with it" dealer. While there, I asked if they had taken off the inspection plate and taken a look inside. They hadn't. I asked what they thought of the "thunk thunk thunk" and marbles-in-can sounds, and they said they didn't hear anything unusual. But then, if they had I'd bet they would have charged me - at least the bill was only $0.00 for them to simply drive it around and declare there's nothing wrong. The sounds are definitely still there, but the clutch is still working fine now.

By the way, the "thunk thunk thunk" sound can be felt too, notably in the brake pedal. There's something hitting something somewhere, but I'll be jiggered if I can figure out what.

/Peter

When it happened, the clutch pedal did go to the floor, yet there's no leaks and everything with the clutch action has gone back to normal of its own accord. Only the odd sounds/vibrations remain.

/Peter

Would an air lock just magically disappear? And no, the dealer claims to have heard nothing unusual. I suspect they didn't drive it enough to experience the "thunk thunk thunk" business, since it only does that when fully warmed up.

The NV3550 is known to be a noisy transmission. Mine always has been noisy when idling in neutral. What's changed recently is that now it makes the same noise when coasting in gear with the clutch pedal depressed, perhaps even louder. It didn't do that for the three years I've owned it and now it's just started. New sounds make me think _something_ is wrong, but it seems the dealer does not concur.

/Peter

----- Original Message ----- From: "JimG" Newsgroups: rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 5:42 PM Subject: Re: Wacky Clutch

Peter Pontbriand did pass the time by typing:

Just my 2c, but I'd be tearing it apart to look.

I'd be tearing it apart too, if I had a heated garage and a tranny jack. That's going to have to wait for spring I guess.

/Peter

No... I'd be more firm with the $teeler and show/let them hear the noise.

JimG

It warmed up enough today for me to wander out to the garage and have a look-see. Although the FSM uses the words "inspection cover" (no diagram) in one spot, I can't see anything that would fit the description. I started it up and tried to get it to do the "thunk thunk thunk" thing in the garage while I could crawl under it, but no go. It seems I have to do a bunch of city driving before that noise shows up.

/Peter

I plan to. The trouble is I'm so rarely in the vicinity of the dealer during business hours, so it may take a while before I can bring it in while it's good and hot and making its noises.

/Peter

No shit! Definitly sounds like something loose is floating around in there. Sooner or later it'll get jammed somewhere and something really costly will break. Of course, it'll wait until after the warranty's out to do this.

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLTC 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep Wrangler YJ TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51, SPONGER#2

I'd drive it until it's making the noise, take it to the dealer, and ask the service manager to go for a ride with me. Don't even shut it off in the service drive. That's probably the only way you'll get them to hear it. Warranty doesn't pay the tech much(read 0$)to test drive, so most of them are short.

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLTC 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep Wrangler YJ TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51, SPONGER#2