I am at a point with my restore on my jeep that I thought I was going to be able to take it for a test drive yesterday.

It has 401 , t18a, and a dana 20. I stuck a centerforce dual friction clutch in it and used a national throw out bearing #614115 that I was told is the same as the centerforce N1439.

I also converted to a parts mike hyd clutch setup which I am 99.9% sure is installed correctly and bled out good.

Problem is I can get the jeep in gear while its running, it just grinds. Also with the motor off in gear and the clutch pushed in I cant push it.

I yanked the trans out last night and cant find anything wrong at all. Clutch disk installed correctly and everything lined up good. only thing I did notice is the clutch seemed to be torque down alittle hard but I had a hard time believing that would cause the problem. Also the pilot bushing is new and fits the input shaft and I see no damage to the bushing or shaft.

I am getting pretty decent throw on the fork lever. The pivot ball is also in place, I checked that.

Only thing I can think is that maybe I was misinformed and the 614115 bearing is not the same as the N1439 bearing???


I stuck everything back together today and still the same thing.

I am out of ideas on this I measured my throw on at the end of the fork where the rod for the hyd. setup hits it and I am only getting about an 1 1/8" throw out of it. Is this enough to disengage the clutch. I thought I read somewhere that I needed about an 1 1/2" for it to work for a 10.5 clutch.

I dont see anyway to possibly get anymore throw out of it. I tired pulling that rod out of it and sticking a longer one in to increase the throw but that didnt really do anything.

If you do crank the motor while its in gear it does lurch forward, same thing with the clutch pushed in all the way.

Could the incorrect throw out bearing cause this?

Here is another strange thing, not sure if it will help.

While the jeep is running if I try and put it in 1st or reverse it will just grind.
Now if I try and stick it 2-4 gear it wont allow it to even try to go in gear but if I bear on the shifter in will inch forward.

With the jeep off I can shift threw all gears just fine.

Would this be just not getting enough throw to diengage the clutch at all or or is something screwy with my clutch?

do the clutches use special bolts? I just used grade 8 regular hex head bolts to bolt it on as I didnt have any of the stock hardware.

Can't be positive, since my Centerforce clutch is mounted in a Chevy--but operating specs are probably similar.
I think the 1.125 throw you're getting from the slave is good to go. Mine is only getting .75 inches, and is adequately releasing the clutch (centerforce 11inch); although with the pedal literally on the floor.
I'd be looking at the throw-out bearing for the correct application and install.
Like I said, .75 is working, but I have a new MC on back-order with a 7/8's bore to match my slaves 7/8's bore.
If you know, I'd be curious what the bores are for both your MC and slave?

I have gotten a response to the bolts. I stuck full threaded hex headed bolts in not having the stock hardware. Come to find out they are shoulderd bolts.
When I torqued the bolts down to spec it drew the pressure plate ears tight to the flywheel.
Would this cause the clutch disk not to release?

I've never had a clutch plate that "floated" on the bolts. So, no, I think a problem would occur if the bolt shoulder was too long, leaving the clutch loose on the flywheel.
A quick Google search for "614115" +"n1439" got a number of hits.
This site: http://autoparts.thecarconnection.com/auto-parts/jeep-cj5/clutch-release-bearing-1 has a picture and a list of apps for each bearing. It's a little confusing, because the two bearings look entirely different, but have similar apps (as far as vehicle types go). No lists of what engine/trans combos each are intended for, however. Just based on appearance, I'd say you have the wrong bearing.

I think that pic is generic as I found this one at summit and another place
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CTF-N1439/

This bearing looks identicle to the one that is in it.

I just had a issue like this with a 304 to np435. I didn't have the pilot bushing knocked all the way in and the out put on the transmission was hitting the bushing in the crank also check the taper where the clutch disk slides on the splines

I am going to check that out today. Hopefully it is something as simple as this.

I am going to check that out today. Hopefully it is something as simple as this.

Get the right bolts, saving a nickle could cost you allot of dollars.

I dropped the trans this morning to see what I could figure out and I took some pics while I was at it.

Anyone see anything out of the normal. I cant tell but the pilot bushing does look like it could be seating maybe 1/8" further?


http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m284/quickstang77/IMG_1121.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m284/quickstang77/IMG_1125.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m284/quickstang77/IMG_1131.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m284/quickstang77/IMG_1123.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m284/quickstang77/IMG_1119.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m284/quickstang77/IMG_1120.jpg

you know... mine just started to do that (not disengage) but I didn't just recently do a clutch job either. I have hardly any pressure on the clutch pedal and it grinds going into reverse and back to 1st. I'll keep a look out on this thread to see what you find out but I think mine's a slave cylinder problem.

well I was talking with centerforce and they are saying the throw out bearing I have should be fine. They are also stumped as far as what cause be causing this exactly telling me it the bolts would just cause a vibration possibly and had a hard time believing it was the throw out bushing.

They told me that once the throw out bearing makes contact with the fingers it should be about 3/8-9/16 of an inch to operate the clutch correctly. This would translate to 3/4- 7/8 inch of throw at the clutch rod which I should have plenty of travel if thats the case.

There has to be something that is hanging up and not letting it free up.

IT WORKS!!!!

I stuck the trans back together this time and bled the slave cylinder over and over again.

When started it I still couldnt get it in gear so I started it in gear with my foot on the brake and clutch then it just seemed to work fine.

Now all is good and all I can say is a built 401 is alittle much for a cj5.

Glad you got it figured out

Got a clue as to what was wrong? What, specifically, did you do the fixed it?