Clutch recommendations and tips?

Agree with @Jerry Bransford that you may not need the flywheel. At 197k, I did not. Mine was in perfect shape. Just cleaned it up with some synthetic steel wool and degreaser.

If.you do decide to replace the flywheel, you may want to consider new flywheel bolts as well. If I recall, they were kind of pricey.

For what it's worth, I am running a Luk clutch and National throwout bearing. Very satisfied. However, I think I ended up with the Gold version after receiving 2 of the normal ones that had gotten damaged in shipping (poor packaging) but I have to go back to my orders to know for sure. Normal is fine if it gets to you undamaged

TrueTexas said:

Agree with @Jerry Bransford that you may not need the flywheel. At 197k, I did not. Mine was in perfect shape. Just cleaned it up with some synthetic steel wool and degreaser.

If.you do decide to replace the flywheel, you may want to consider new flywheel bolts as well. If I recall, they were kind of pricey.

For what it's worth, I am running a Luk clutch and National throwout bearing. Very satisfied. However, I think I ended up with the Gold version after receiving 2 of the normal ones that had gotten damaged in shipping (poor packaging) but I have to go back to my orders to know for sure. Normal is fine if it gets to you undamaged

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Thanks for the reply, nice to hear another in support of LUK. What kind of damage should I be looking for, was it pretty obvious? First time doing a clutch want to make sure I don’t miss the damage.

Latimera said:

Thanks for the reply, nice to hear another in support of LUK. What kind of damage should I be looking for, was it pretty obvious? First time doing a clutch want to make sure I don’t miss the damage.

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The damage was really obvious. Cracked disk because they came loose in the Luk packaging. Luk clutch is great but hoping they have improved the way they are packaged

I would like to jump in on some of the questions here. I have a '97 TJ, 4.0L with 223,xxx miles on the original drive train.
It is beginning to chatter as I take off, so replacement is imminent! I have not seen any mention of the slave cylinder in the discussion thread.
In my own ignorance, I cannot tell if the kit comes with one.
I am mechanically inclined and like to learn as I go so, I want to subject myself to the challenge of doing this work myself but don't want to stop midway when I discover that I don't have what I need to complete the work. The last clutch I replaced was in a Mustang II, which did not have any fancy extras.
I do know that this would be the time to replace the slave cylinder while it is all apart.
Any information would be appreciated.
Thank you.

Vali Jo said:

I would like to jump in on some of the questions here. I have a '97 TJ, 4.0L with 223,xxx miles on the original drive train.
It is beginning to chatter as I take off, so replacement is imminent! I have not seen any mention of the slave cylinder in the discussion thread.
In my own ignorance, I cannot tell if the kit comes with one.
I am mechanically inclined and like to learn as I go so, I want to subject myself to the challenge of doing this work myself but don't want to stop midway when I discover that I don't have what I need to complete the work. The last clutch I replaced was in a Mustang II, which did not have any fancy extras.
I do know that this would be the time to replace the slave cylinder while it is all apart.
Any information would be appreciated.
Thank you.

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All that will come in a clutch kit will be the clutch friction disc, the pressure plate, the throwout bearing, and the pilot bearing.

Slave cylinder can be changed at any time, you do not need to change it just because you are doing the clutch. Jeeps have external slave cylinders, not internal, so they are not trapped in the bellhousing. Meaning you don’t need to do it just because you’re replacing the clutch.

The clutch kit does not come with a master/slave cylinder and that can be replaced without taking the tranny out. You can try that first or after the clutch replacement. Your call on that one

The Luk clutch comes with a plastic throwout bearing (which im sure is fine). If you want, you can get an all metal one like the National one. I did because I didn't want to do the job twice.

Definitely replace the pilot bearing while you have it open to do the clutch.

It's one of those jobs you can do by yourself. If it's not your daily, spread it our over a few days so you can be methodical about it.

machoheadgames said:

All that will come in a clutch kit will be the clutch friction disc, the pressure plate, the throwout bearing, and the pilot bearing.

Slave cylinder can be changed at any time, you do not need to change it just because you are doing the clutch. Jeeps have external slave cylinders, not internal, so they are not trapped in the bellhousing. Meaning you don’t need to do it just because you’re replacing the clutch.

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You beat me to it

machoheadgames said:

All that will come in a clutch kit will be the clutch friction disc, the pressure plate, the throwout bearing, and the pilot bearing.

Slave cylinder can be changed at any time, you do not need to change it just because you are doing the clutch. Jeeps have external slave cylinders, not internal, so they are not trapped in the bellhousing. Meaning you don’t need to do it just because you’re replacing the clutch.

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Thank you very much!
Since I will be under there, and because there are over 223,000 miles, what would you recommend for a replacement slave cylinder? Not that I want to spend the money, but in my mind, it would be similar to replacing the drive shaft and not the U-joints. But, I could be wrong (see my first post)

TrueTexas said:

The clutch kit does not come with a master/slave cylinder and that can be replaced without taking the tranny out. You can try that first or after the clutch replacement. Your call on that one

The Luk clutch comes with a plastic throwout bearing (which im sure is fine). If you want, you can get an all metal one like the National one. I did because I didn't want to do the job twice.

Definitely replace the pilot bearing while you have it open to do the clutch.

It's one of those jobs you can do by yourself. If it's not your daily, spread it our over a few days so you can be methodical about it.

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Thank you for pointing out the plastic throwout bearing. I will definitely want to get an all-metal one, and I definitely only want to do this one time so anything that I can replace (that needs to be) I want to do at that time!

Vali Jo said:

Thank you very much!
Since I will be under there, and because there are over 223,000 miles, what would you recommend for a replacement slave cylinder? Not that I want to spend the money, but in my mind, it would be similar to replacing the drive shaft and not the U-joints. But, I could be wrong (see my first post)

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I mean literally the only thing you’re doing while down there is unbolting the two bolts and physically crawling underneath the Jeep. No time or effort is saved by replacing it now while you’re in there. You certainly can if you want, but if it still works I’d leave it.

I wouldn’t recommend a slave cylinder replacement by itself. I’d recommend a full prebled master and slave cylinder assembly.

For an all metal throwout bearing, I’d rather have Mopar than any other brand.

Hey all!

Was able to get the trans out over the weekend and wanted to share what I found!

First and foremost my issue was most definitely my Throwout Berring!






Next was the clutch which had some pretty good wear and tear as well. Down to the rivets on one side and more than a few broken teeth as well.




Next is the flywheel before and after a good cleaning and sanding. It cleaned up very nice and as far as I can tell there is no deep cuts or grooves and should be reusable! Much like @Jerry Bransford mentioned.


Lastly is what I believe is the rear main seal leaking? Going to buy a gasket kit for this and the oil pan. Overall not a terrible job to do but pretty time consuming. Happy to get the TJ all sorted out and refreshed where it counts the most!

Just a few follow up questions I have are below:
1. Can you confirm the flywheel looks good to reuse?
2. Is that indeed the rear main seal leaking?
3. Anything else I should check or replace while under/inside here?

Definitely rear main seal...it's a 2 piece and requires removal of the oil pan and rear bearing block. Lots of good posts on the topic. Use a Mopar seal and rear loctite on the block mating surface. Felpro oil pan gasket. Might be fixed using high mileage oil and there's a post on AT-205 reseal "fixing" the issue.

The only labor you save doing it now is the time to drop the down pipe and exhaust and skid plate.

Check the front and rear seals on your transmission!

Good luck!

-Mac

Before going to the trouble of replacing the rear main seal, try this first. Simply change your engine oil to a High Mileage conventional 10W-30 engine oil like from Pennzoil. That can restore the condition of the seal and stop the leak. Some synthetic engine oils can dry that seal out and cause it to leak. Doing this cured a massive rear main seal leak in my previous daily driver BMW that had only seen synthetic engine oil.

It took my BMW less than a week of daily driving for the leak to completely stop.

Jerry Bransford said:

Before going to the trouble of replacing the rear main seal, try this first. Simply change your engine oil to a High Mileage conventional 10W-30 engine oil like from Pennzoil. That can restore the condition of the seal and stop the leak. Some synthetic engine oils can dry that seal out and cause it to leak. Doing this cured a massive rear main seal leak in my previous daily driver BMW that had only seen synthetic engine oil.

It took my BMW less than a week of daily driving for the leak to completely stop.

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Appreciate the recommendation but unfortunately I’ve been using 10-w30 high mileage for as long as I can remember. Still leaks pretty good. I don’t mind the extra work just wanna get it done while I’m under there.

As far as the flywheel goes though, it’s good to go back in so long as I can’t run my nail on it and catch any scratches or chips right?

Yes your flywheel sounds like it's good to go. And you have been running a conventional not synthetic High Mileage right? If so yeah your RMS is toast lol.