Mine was apparently not as bad as yours. Your was described as tar like. I feel like mine was more sap like. Hopefully yours is just hydraulics now. If you need a bleeding buddy I’m free and have lots of experience in it now.
yeah Dirk said mine was really gunked up. It’s definitely way better after taking it to ACT. Prior to I couldn’t even get in any gear LOL
Maybe 2025 is going to be your year after all…it just took its time getting going in the right direction.Ok all I finally have some good news to report. After several weeks of corresponding with @Actman to troubleshoot we were finally able to find a time for me to get my Jeep up to ACT in Lancaster, CA. Here is what we discovered. I forgot to take pictures so I'll describe everything the best I can.
- The issue with my clutch was the grease as Dirk suspected. The transmission shop told me they used the purple grease that comes from the kit but after opening it up it was clear that the grease on my splines was red and had a tacky, sticky and almost sap like feel. They used some sort of bearing grease that mixed with the clutch disc dust and formed this goop that was causing the clutch to drag. It looks like it just took several months and 10k miles for this symptoms to start happening.
- It is still unclear where and when the leak of my hydraulics falls into all of this. I 100% did have a leak at the hydraulic line connection to the master. So once that was discovered and remedied my problem with the spline grease manifested itself again. I don't believe there was ever anything wrong with my original slave and master cylinders that have since been replaced.
- My clutch was removed and bench tested. It all tested fine. There was no issue with the actual clutch parts. The wear on my clutch disc was also very minimal for having at this point about 14k miles on it.
- The croaking sound was coming from inside the bell housing.
It was not from the hydraulic parts NOR the clutch itself (as the bench test proved). It seems to be caused by the ball that the clutch fork pivots on. There was some uneven wear at the end of the ball and the paint had worn away at almost a point inside the clutch fork pocket. They cleaned this all out and we'll see if the croaking comes back but for now I have not heard that particular sound again (I drove about 60 miles back home).
- The drive home from Lancaster was shift issue free! Jeep is driving/shifting normal again.
It was such a huge relief after 3 months and over 2k spent to finally find out what was going on. A huge thanks to ACT, Dirk and his whole crew. I got to spend the whole day at their facility and they are just a great company with great people who just love clutches and want to make vehicles (including Jeeps) shift better.
Dirk and I talked a lot about what a difference the ACT makes in compared to the stock clutch when wheeling. I can't wait to get my Jeep back on the trails!
Ha every time you say that you jinx it.
No really this time for sure…my magic eight ball says soHa every time you say that you jinx it.
I can at least now move back to my transfer case project and also trying to figure out why my Jeep steering is trying to suicide me off the road.
No really this time for sure…my magic eight ball says so
Have you changed out your front and rear track bars? I swear it changed how ours drives down the highway.Ha every time you say that you jinx it.
I can at least now move back to my transfer case project and also trying to figure out why my Jeep steering is trying to suicide me off the road.
The issues started after I replaced my EVO front trackbar with the Metalcloak one. I suppose I could swap them back and see how it does but haven't had the time to really get into it.
I changed a bunch of things at once so now it's really difficult to tell what is the cause. I swapped out the ball joints, knuckles, track bar, tie rod, drag link, steering stabilizer and tires. So it's one of those 7 things.
Very good news! Hopefully this is the is fix!Ok all I finally have some good news to report. After several weeks of corresponding with @Actman to troubleshoot we were finally able to find a time for me to get my Jeep up to ACT in Lancaster, CA. Here is what we discovered. I forgot to take pictures so I'll describe everything the best I can.
- The issue with my clutch was the grease as Dirk suspected. The transmission shop told me they used the purple grease that comes from the kit but after opening it up it was clear that the grease on my splines was red and had a tacky, sticky and almost sap like feel. They used some sort of bearing grease that mixed with the clutch disc dust and formed this goop that was causing the clutch to drag. It looks like it just took several months and 10k miles for this symptoms to start happening.
- It is still unclear where and when the leak of my hydraulics falls into all of this. I 100% did have a leak at the hydraulic line connection to the master. So once that was discovered and remedied my problem with the spline grease manifested itself again. I don't believe there was ever anything wrong with my original slave and master cylinders that have since been replaced.
- My clutch was removed and bench tested. It all tested fine. There was no issue with the actual clutch parts. The wear on my clutch disc was also very minimal for having at this point about 14k miles on it.
- The croaking sound was coming from inside the bell housing.
It was not from the hydraulic parts NOR the clutch itself (as the bench test proved). It seems to be caused by the ball that the clutch fork pivots on. There was some uneven wear at the end of the ball and the paint had worn away at almost a point inside the clutch fork pocket. They cleaned this all out and we'll see if the croaking comes back but for now I have not heard that particular sound again (I drove about 60 miles back home).
- The drive home from Lancaster was shift issue free! Jeep is driving/shifting normal again.
It was such a huge relief after 3 months and over 2k spent to finally find out what was going on. A huge thanks to ACT, Dirk and his whole crew. I got to spend the whole day at their facility and they are just a great company with great people who just love clutches and want to make vehicles (including Jeeps) shift better.
Dirk and I talked a lot about what a difference the ACT makes in compared to the stock clutch when wheeling. I can't wait to get my Jeep back on the trails!
This is great news! I'm glad they finally got you fixed up. It was getting a little bit ridiculous.Ok all I finally have some good news to report. After several weeks of corresponding with @Actman to troubleshoot we were finally able to find a time for me to get my Jeep up to ACT in Lancaster, CA. Here is what we discovered. I forgot to take pictures so I'll describe everything the best I can.
- The issue with my clutch was the grease as Dirk suspected. The transmission shop told me they used the purple grease that comes from the kit but after opening it up it was clear that the grease on my splines was red and had a tacky, sticky and almost sap like feel. They used some sort of bearing grease that mixed with the clutch disc dust and formed this goop that was causing the clutch to drag. It looks like it just took several months and 10k miles for this symptoms to start happening.
- It is still unclear where and when the leak of my hydraulics falls into all of this. I 100% did have a leak at the hydraulic line connection to the master. So once that was discovered and remedied my problem with the spline grease manifested itself again. I don't believe there was ever anything wrong with my original slave and master cylinders that have since been replaced.
- My clutch was removed and bench tested. It all tested fine. There was no issue with the actual clutch parts. The wear on my clutch disc was also very minimal for having at this point about 14k miles on it.
- The croaking sound was coming from inside the bell housing.
It was not from the hydraulic parts NOR the clutch itself (as the bench test proved). It seems to be caused by the ball that the clutch fork pivots on. There was some uneven wear at the end of the ball and the paint had worn away at almost a point inside the clutch fork pocket. They cleaned this all out and we'll see if the croaking comes back but for now I have not heard that particular sound again (I drove about 60 miles back home).
- The drive home from Lancaster was shift issue free! Jeep is driving/shifting normal again.
It was such a huge relief after 3 months and over 2k spent to finally find out what was going on. A huge thanks to ACT, Dirk and his whole crew. I got to spend the whole day at their facility and they are just a great company with great people who just love clutches and want to make vehicles (including Jeeps) shift better.
Dirk and I talked a lot about what a difference the ACT makes in compared to the stock clutch when wheeling. I can't wait to get my Jeep back on the trails!
I could give an entire TED talk on my feelings about this topic but I don't think I need to make ya'll suffer through that.
Well luckily now you can put this behind you and move on to bigger and better things and enjoy your Jeep again.
