I agree it may not necessarily be the clutch. At this point everyone is pointing fingers at everyone else and it's frustrating. I wish I just had a shop I could trust to look at it and tell me exactly what is wrong.
Not sure you haven't already seen this... but it may give you some idea of what's going on or what the considerations were for the ACT clutch design. time hack 2:53 is about the spring diaphram design.
Ha that may be a bit far for me to have it towed but I appreciate it.
That’s always a potential problem if you supply your parts for a shop to install. You save money because shops mark parts up, but shops are way more likely to say “the install was correct. Must be an issue with the parts YOU supplied” and the parts manufacturer “the parts we sold you were good. Must be a problem with the shop YOU went to”.
Yes that was the risk I took and it doesn't seem to be working out. If I were giving anyone else future advice I'd say only buy an aftermarket clutch if you know how to do the work yourself. I thought I did my research but I just didn't do enough and am paying for it now for sure.
I’m in a similar boat. The shop I went to is the one everyone recommends within an ~8 hour drive. I have to shift slowly and methodically, and sometimes there’s a little chatter or it’s rough or there’s great resistance shifting; if I try to shift quickly there’s almost always an issue around 1st-3rd.
This, and the symptoms others are describing, indicates a clutch actuation issue. Syncro's either work or they don't, they're really not temperature dependent. The hydraulic clutch runs brake fluid, which will over time absorb moisture; this moisture can under higher temps with older moisture contaminated fluid boil, and severely reduce clutch actuation; braking performance decreases with this as well. . Perform a complete fluid flush and see if it cures the issue.
It all seems logical. I'm just wondering why this this exact issue has happened to multiple people with ACT installs. Have they all gotten installed incorrectly to then cause issues with the hydraulics? Is it just a coincidence that we just all got unlucky with the hydraulics and happened to have the same clutch installed?
As far as I know, it's an install problem. @chevymitchell has installed numerous of the ACT clutches for forum members and I haven't heard of any problems. When the time comes I might make the trip to Colorado...
Maybe ACT should open up an install shop. I bet people would pay to take it there to get these installed. Or at least have a list of local shops that they work with to do installs. Would save a lot of grief, time and money for some folks.
ACT didn’t do the original install on mine but they did look at my JL after the initial install as I was having major issues. Currently, I am having issues with rough shifting in my jeep again.
Aftermarket clutches, like ACT, have a higher clamping force; and thus take more slave pressure to operate. If the hydraulic fluid is marginal; this could be the issue.
Should these higher clamping force clutches then come with their own slave cylinders to prevent issues with the hydraulics?
