My motorcycles with hydraulic clutches turned black within hours of riding, and were never a problem. I had 24,000 miles on my 1000RR in two years (half that time I was out to sea) and it was flawless.
Me neither. If I sell this Jeep, I'm going with something else with a manual.
I appear to be having a similar issue with a shop that was subcontracted to install my clutch in March 2023. The main shop had so many issues with the sub shop that they switched shops. The new shop worked with Centerforce and the ball/nipple seems to not either press on the pressure plate evenly and there is a buildup of grease from the poor shop. For context they greased the hell out of the splines, but must not have had any left for the ball and fork!!. I am upgrading to the hydraulic throw out bearing, while the transmission is separated from the engine.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!
Good luck, hopefully something shows itself as the problem and is easily fixed. I’d be mostly curious what the splines on the transmission look like right after being pulled. Have you tried to use a camera scope to see the splines? With mine I am able to see them and have someone push the clutch pedal and can see things moving smoothly. I believe someone had some burs or something on their splines and sanded them down/ cleaned them up and had some success with that fix. I’m curious if each time the transmission is removed if we should all start checking the gap between the transmission splines and disc while cold and then afterwards with applying some heat on it? Then seeing if it slides smoothly still or not? Just something I’ve been thinking I’ll try to do when and if mine comes back apart.
Dont have borescope.
Lots of folks say their new clutch "feels great" immediately after installation.
I have had the clutch more than 2 years. The issue I had was the sub contracted shop using red n’ tacky. I had the hydraulic throw out bearing installed and it has made it even better. I have towed a trailer through the Colorado mountains and rock crawled at Moab with the Centerforce Dual Friction.
