Yesterday I had a friend in the car and did a ~35 mph 3rd gear pull, it seemed like it was slipping at first and afterwards I started smelling clutch. After that I took it easy, parked it for a night, and went for a normal drive. After parking, I can smell clutch again. I'm not riding the clutch or granny shifting.
The car ran perfect 2 days ago. It started slipping 3rd, 4th, and 5th yesterday and now any gear can slip at any speed. Not even 1/2 throttle. I'm about to start tearing it down for a clutch job, but I'm having second thoughts because I don't think a clutch can wear down THAT fast, or stink after very normal driving. The clutch bites at the top. The pedal is all the way out.
Sure can and that's a pretty normal failure mode. It's extremely rare for a worn down organic disc clutch to recover or improve after cooling down. The little remaining friction material has probably glazed over or worn off. Even on a newer clutch with a lot of friction material, if you glaze it bad enough there's a good chance it will never hold as good.
Got the new clutch installed and everything put back together. Clutch pedal gets very stiff an inch or two off the floor. Try to start the car, it cranked but it seemed like something was sort of catching the flywheel. It cranked as it should and then stopped completely. Tried again and the car started. With the clutch to the floor, I heard/felt a loud grinding sound.
I got out and looked through the inspection port and noticed this:
It looks like the slave is extended too far? Forgive my ignorance, this is my first time doing a clutch or any transmission work on a manual. I can slowly press the rod in, and it'll slowly come out. The clutch pedal was not touched at any time during installation. Could a bad slave be the reason my clutch went out so quickly before(pretty much riding the clutch at all times)? And is that also the problem here? Or is this an installation error?
A bad slave cylinder not retracting could cause wear problems. While you were in there installing the clutch, did you replace the release lever (fork) and pivot ball it rides on? What clutch kit did you use? If it came with a non-Mopar throw-out bearing was it the correct one and same design as what came out?
The fork was still in good condition so I didn't replace it. Big mistake, I know. But, a friend just informed me that it looks like my fork is twisted which is a bad pivot ball. I'm using a sachs clutch. The TOB looked the exact same. I'm pulling the trans again today.
If you didn't already look it up there's quite a few pictures on the forums of where the stock fork wears down due to the throw-out (release) bearing. If it hasn't been replaced before and the fork will almost certainly worn too far for reuse over the regular service life of a clutch. Also if you're replacing the pivot ball and don't have the SPX-Miller tool it can be a pain to get out, but you can usually pop off the nylon top part and move between new and old assembly if you're careful. Make sure to apply a little (key word little) bit of grease if you still have some that came with your clutch kit.
You two were absolutely right. I dropped the tranny again and examined the fork, it was in bad shape. I suppose I just didn't really know what I was looking for the first time. It was saturday so I couldn't get a fork, so I decided to repair it with stainless steel screws. The clutch is like butter now. Thank you.
I did the same thing on my first SRT-4 clutch swap. It worked ok, but it was noisy and sloppy. None of us knew about how important that wear was way back in the day ~2006. The screw thing has worked for many. I guess if you happen to use some good screws, it will last too.
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