Centerforce Clutch Updates.

[AVGeek99]

Well, I have two clutches on order. The Centerforce II and an OEM. This afternoon I bought an OEM clutch on CarID, the site said it would ship in 5-7 days. I just looked at my order and it's estimated ship date is 10/17.

Then just now I found a seller on Amazon had one Centerforce II in stock with estimated delivery between 10/12 and 10/17, so I jumped on that.

I really don't mind the stock clutch. It's been perfectly fine for my 20k miles and hasn't slipped once. Then I started having issues after having too much fun in the mud this past weekend.

It's possible I don't need a clutch at all. The local shop pulled the slave cylinder and that was shot. When they pulled that the pressure plate did not release. They aren't sure what's going on, but don't want to take it apart further until they have new parts to put in, if they are needed.

So I guess I'll go with which ever clutch arrives first and return the other one. Hopefully, once they get it open the stock clutch will just need cleaning and I can return both and just replace the slave cylinder.

Fingers crossed.

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[AVGeek99]

My Center Force clutch kit arrived late this afternoon so the shop opened up the bell housing. Appears that sandy, gritty sludge got up into the throw out bearing and gunked it up, that is what was causing the heavy resistance for the last few inches of the clutch pedal. The slave cylinder also gave into the force of pressing the clutch against the resistance.

It's possible that cleaning it up and putting a new slave cylinder and throw out bearing could solve all my problems. But who's to say it wouldn't fail a few months down the road from the abuse and punishment of forcing it so much while it was all gunked up. So I decided to just have them put the Center Force in. I should hopefully have it back tomorrow afternoon.

 

[R3TRO]

My Center Force clutch kit arrived late this afternoon so the shop opened up the bell housing. Appears that sandy, gritty sludge got up into the throw out bearing and gunked it up, that is what was causing the heavy resistance for the last few inches of the clutch pedal.

I'm thinking of getting a 2dr 6spd... but if driving it through mud does this I'm giving it a serious second thought! Am I missing something or can you not take a manual jeep through mud? That doesn't seem right?!

 

[AVGeek99]

I'm thinking of getting a 2dr 6spd... but if driving it through mud does this I'm giving it a serious second thought! Am I missing something or can you not take a manual jeep through mud? That doesn't seem right?!

I honestly don't know what to say. I'm kind of thinking the same thing at this point. I guess the one thing I would do different next time is to not go through so fast?

Can others comment on what can be done to prevent clutch issues when going through deep mud?

 

[Toycrusher]

I'm thinking of getting a 2dr 6spd... but if driving it through mud does this I'm giving it a serious second thought! Am I missing something or can you not take a manual jeep through mud? That doesn't seem right?!

If you submarine it in really deep slushy mud you may have a problem but that's more of a Florida swamp type thing. Unless the mud is also filling the cab, it's not going to affect your clutch

 

[AVGeek99]

Got my Jeep back today with the Center Force II clutch installed.

The Center Force clutch definitely feels different from stock. Not different bad, or good for that matter, just different. It feels much more like clutches in most other vehicles with manuals. There is much more resistance in the clutch pedal. That's not to say it is hard to press in, it just has very noticeably more resistance than the stock clutch, which has very very little.

The CF clutch lets go as soon as you let the pedal leave the floor, versus the stock clutch that doesn't let go until the pedal is an inch or two off the floor. Also with the heavier fly wheel it shifts much smoother with less effort.

The stock clutch never gave me any problems, aside from getting gunked up with mud, but I have to say the CF clutch does feel much better all around.

 

[sstuner]

@AVGeek99 , glad to hear it all work out. Don't forget to take it easy for the 500 mile break-in period. I'm almost completed with the break-in and agree with it being different but in a good way.

 

[multicam]

@AVGeek99 @Toycrusher @R3TRO

Regarding mud, I definitely hear your concerns and am slightly disturbed by AVGeek99’s experience.

I subjected both my 2006 TJ with the inline 4 and my 1994 YJ with the I-6 (both manual transmission) to utterly horrific conditions. I mean, truly terrible and inhumane amount of mud and water. The only issue I ever had was the TJ’s clutch position sensor went out after getting it stuck at the bottom of a retention pond right before a torrential downpour which flooded it to about 1/3rd of the way up the steering wheel.

Those two jeeps went through hell and back and I sold them in fairly good running order… I don’t have faith that my JLR could take the same amount of abuse.

Sure enough, the one and only time I took my JLR through mud I end up with a whiny alternator that sounds like it’s about to give up the ghost any minute now. But it has lasted about 7k miles so I’ll let it ride.

 

[Cutterone]

I've had the CF2 in for a few weeks now, about 600 miles. Its broken in nicely, has a nice weighted feel to it and the travel has moved up from the floor from when it was new. Very happy with it so far...

 

[AVGeek99]

@AVGeek99 , glad to hear it all work out. Don't forget to take it easy for the 500 mile break-in period. I'm almost completed with the break-in and agree with it being different but in a good way.

Yeah, I don't have any off roading planned in the near future, and I don't normally beat on it just driving around. I'll just be driving it around town, the county roads around where I live and and taking it into work, avoiding the freeways as much as possible.

 

[AVGeek99]

@AVGeek99 @Toycrusher @R3TRO

Regarding mud, I definitely hear your concerns and am slightly disturbed by AVGeek99’s experience.

I subjected both my 2006 TJ with the inline 4 and my 1994 YJ with the I-6 (both manual transmission) to utterly horrific conditions. I mean, truly terrible and inhumane amount of mud and water. The only issue I ever had was the TJ’s clutch position sensor went out after getting it stuck at the bottom of a retention pond right before a torrential downpour which flooded it to about 1/3rd of the way up the steering wheel.

Those two jeeps went through hell and back and I sold them in fairly good running order… I don’t have faith that my JLR could take the same amount of abuse.

Sure enough, the one and only time I took my JLR through mud I end up with a whiny alternator that sounds like it’s about to give up the ghost any minute now. But it has lasted about 7k miles so I’ll let it ride.

Yeah, I am surprised at what happened to my clutch based on what I was doing. I had an '87 4Runner 5spd back in the day that I had a lot of fun with and never had issues like this.

The bell housing wasn't full of mud, but there was a little bit of gritty sludge. I think what happend is the gritty sludge got into the throwout bearing because it's not sealed and the bearing ended up seizing up so it wouldn't slide well on the shaft. And it's very possible some of the gritty sludge also got into an mucked up the pressure plate.

The one thing I thought of to minimize the amount of sludge that gets into the bell housing is to temporarily block the gap at the bottom of the bell housing with some tape if you know you're going to go through a lot of mud. Once your'e off the trail you need to be sure to remove the tape so the clutch is able to breath properly as designed. Does anyone know if this is a bad idea that could cause other issues?

 

[Toycrusher]

Yeah, I am surprised at what happened to my clutch based on what I was doing. I had an '87 4Runner 5spd back in the day that I had a lot of fun with and never had issues like this.

The bell housing wasn't full of mud, but there was a little bit of gritty sludge. I think what happend is the gritty sludge got into the throwout bearing because it's not sealed and the bearing ended up seizing up so it wouldn't slide well on the shaft. And it's very possible some of the gritty sludge also got into an mucked up the pressure plate.

The one thing I thought of to minimize the amount of sludge that gets into the bell housing is to temporarily block the gap at the bottom of the bell housing with some tape if you know you're going to go through a lot of mud. Once your'e off the trail you need to be sure to remove the tape so the clutch is able to breath properly as designed. Does anyone know if this is a bad idea that could cause other issues?

The drain is so that anything that inadvertently gets into the bellhousing can get back out. If you know you are diving deep, nothing wrong with taping it, but probably best to remove it as soon as you emerge from the deep to drain anything that got in anyway

 

[sstuner]

I recall that when I did my CFII clutch install that in the back of the bellhousing just to the right of the fork arm pivot ball their is an opening (looking into trans bellhousing) to the outside. Not sure if taping the bottom temporarily is going to help but hinder if liquid enters the bellhousing cavity.

 

[OminousSkitter]

What did you go with for a pilot bearing since it was not included?

When you asked in a different thread, you had multiple people—including the president of ACT—tell you that this transmission was not designed to use a pilot bearing. Any reason you’re ignoring their knowledge?

 

[BuyHold]

No not ignoring… I’m jumping thread to thread just to verify. I appreciate their input, just missing the responses. Ty

I have CFII (KCFT157077). Can confirm, no pilot bearing was included.

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