TJ 1st gear shakes

[r7955]

98 Jeep shakes when starting in 1st gear, worst when its just warming up, but seems to last longer lately. It pulls fine, even in too high of a gear. Any ideas?
Clutch doesn't seem to be slipping, but it engages/disengages at the end of the pedal throw. Idle is fine. 4 cylinder & 5 speed.

 

[SteelHeadz]

possibly a warped flywheel. This is usually described as a shudder when releasing the clutch on first gear on a manual trans.

 

[Crazy4diesels]

Mine has done this in first and reverse since it was brand new. It only does it when the clutch is cold and usually when it's damp outside (like early morning). After it warms up it's fine. Also, my rear brakes squeal horrendously and grab when is's damp outside. This goes away after a couple of stops. - John

 

[Saddle Tramp]

I'm with StealHeadz. It could be the clutch disk it's self is warped too. Either way the transmission is coming out.

John- I think I would have been down to the stealership pounding on the service manager's desk if the jeep came out of the box that way. Your jeep must have been assembled on a Monday after a long hard weekend; that or a Friday when everyone was ready to go home.

 

[xt master]

Mine shakes when cold also.Easy fix let it warm up before taking off.

 

[glenn beck]

like others have said - clutch warped (broken springs on clutch plate) or possible engine mount. clutch is normally a fast judder normally easy to tell as you can fell it on peddle with no shoes on. engine mount is a knocking that you can normally fell by keeping your hand on the gear stick which will try going side to side.
hope this helps

 

[r7955]

Thank you all for the responses.
I've had 2 mechanics look at my Jeep and say the same thing... that they think it is a warped/hot spotted flywheel. They said if I can deal with it, the clutch feels like it will last for quite awhile longer.
Too bad I just bought this Jeep over a month ago, but I knew it would have issues since it's almost 12 years old.

I did talk with them somewhat seriously about doing a V8 conversion with some full-size axles underneath. Would be a lot of money, but a whole lot of fun too.

 

[Saddle Tramp]

If you go to the trouble/time/expense of removing the transmission I highly recommend you at least replace the clutch disk. It is cheap to do then but expensive to do later unless you are doing the work yourself; even then why wait and go through the exercise again.

 

[Crazy4diesels]

John- I think I would have been down to the stealership pounding on the service manager's desk if the jeep came out of the box that way. Your jeep must have been assembled on a Monday after a long hard weekend; that or a Friday when everyone was ready to go home.[/QUOTE]

In my case I think it's just the clutch lining material. When it's cold and damp it gets a little grabby. Yep, came like that new "out of the box" but I don't want anyone working on it. I'm not so sure what they'd do anyway, short of changing the clutch disk :bomb::shock: . - John

 

[54cj3b]

could be a burnt flywheel or warped or even a bad presure plate but first I would
check the gear oil level see if its low and or black may need a good flush and change ,gear oil gets burnt and looses viscosity also worn gear oil will cause vibration of gears over time also

 

[Saddle Tramp]

John- I think I would have been down to the stealership pounding on the service manager's desk if the jeep came out of the box that way. Your jeep must have been assembled on a Monday after a long hard weekend; that or a Friday when everyone was ready to go home.

In my case I think it's just the clutch lining material. When it's cold and damp it gets a little grabby. Yep, came like that new "out of the box" but I don't want anyone working on it. I'm not so sure what they'd do anyway, short of changing the clutch disk :bomb::shock: . - John[/QUOTE]


I understand.

 

[r7955]

I was planning to drain and refill the transmission fluid, but haven't had a lot of luck finding info. on such a job. (manuals, fluid requirements, etc.)

Even the local O'reilly's autoparts store wasn't very reassuring about how much transmission fluid I needed, or how to go about changing it.

If anyone knows of a good online reference for this job, I'd surely appreciate it.

Thank you all for your help.

Randy

 

[SteelHeadz]

AX53.2 L (3.3 qts.) AX153.15 L (3.32 qts.)
Recommended lubricant for AX15 and AX5 transmissions is Mopar® 75W - 90, API Grade GL - 3 gear lubricant, or equivalent. I would use either a REDLINE or the Royal purple fluid. They seem to work a lot better.
Correct lubricant level is from the bottom edge, to no more than 6 mm (1/4 in.) below the bottom edge of the fill plug hole.
The fill plug is located on the driver's side of the transmission case The drain plug is located on the passenger side of the transmission case near the bottom .

AX-15

AX5

 

[Jeeper99]

my rear brakes squeal horrendously and grab when is's damp outside. This goes away after a couple of stops. - John

Mine was doing the same thing. I changed out the wheel cylinders and took care of my problem.

 

[Crazy4diesels]

I wonder what was up with the wheel cylinders? Maybe you had a couple of frozen pistons and they were not applying pressure correctly... When I change brake shoes I often change wheel cylinders at the same time to prevent cup leakage so I'll end up with new ones in there soon. A brake job is on the horizon. Thanks for the info - John

 

[Jeeper99]

Beats me. I had to change mine because when I first got in the Jeep of a morning and stopped at the end of my driveway, it was like a rock was hung in my drum and would almost throw me through the windshield. I changed out the wheel cylinders and put a new brake kit in the rear and I still have issues with my rear brakes not working right. Tightened up the E-Brake cable tension, new Master cylinder, bled the brakes several times. Heck, I even changed out proportion valves out of a 97 grand to apply more pressure to the back (50/50) and still no change. The only thing I havn't done is get new Drums, but I don't even know if that will work or not. I'm kind of at a dead end now.

 

[glenn beck]

Beats me. I had to change mine because when I first got in the Jeep of a morning and stopped at the end of my driveway, it was like a rock was hung in my drum and would almost throw me through the windshield. I changed out the wheel cylinders and put a new brake kit in the rear and I still have issues with my rear brakes not working right. Tightened up the E-Brake cable tension, new Master cylinder, bled the brakes several times. Heck, I even changed out proportion valves out of a 97 grand to apply more pressure to the back (50/50) and still no change. The only thing I havn't done is get new Drums, but I don't even know if that will work or not. I'm kind of at a dead end now.

if the brakes drums have a groove worn into them then the new shoes will be wider that the groove and this can cause headaches until the shoes wear in to the width of the grooves. the only other thing i would surgest is to replace the flex pipe to the rear axle as the inside of the flex may be restricting the line.

 

[Jeeper99]

When I put the new shoes on, I had the drums turned. I will give the flex line a try next. Thanks for the heads up!