ErrngeElise
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- John
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2022
- Threads
- 7
- Messages
- 144
- Reaction score
- 140
- Location
- Central FL
- Vehicle(s)
- Lotus Elise, '21 JTR 6MT
- Occupation
- Engineer
- Thread starter
- #1
Over the weekend I completed a clutch replacement on my '21 JTR 6MT. I started this project 3/15 and didn't actually finish it until 3/23, however I really only worked on it Saturday 3/15 - Sunday 3/16 and then nothing until Saturday 3/23 because of work priorities and none of those days were full days. If I was working with a friend it definitely could have been done a lot faster and in a single weekend, perhaps a day even if you are both skilled and have a lift to put the truck on. Doing it on the garage floor and mostly alone definitely adds a lot of time and frustration. I didn't want to do the 19A clutch recall because of all the issues with the post recall software for trucks with larger tires. I have 37s and 4.88s so I have no interest in dealing with false alarms, "Service transmission" or clutch overheating alarms from bad interpolation algorithms. Maybe if Jeep ever figures it out I'll let them flash it but for now I'm trying an aftermarket clutch.
New ACT JP6-HDSS kit.
The factory twin disc looked really good, which is not surprising because I wasn't having any trouble with it. The truck only has ~35k miles on it. I can only assume that the second disc on the other side looks just as good.
The ~42lb flywheel is a bear to get lined up correctly while working off the floor.
The only tricky part about lining the trans up was fighting to keep the wiring harness that runs across the top of the bellhousing from getting pinched while fighting the bracket that holds the fuel/evap lines from getting trapped in between. This part sucks doing by yourself. Enlist a friend for this part.
In addition to doing the clutch, I also noticed I was leaking fluid between the trans and the transfer case. Since both use the same ATF, I wasn't sure which one of the two it was until I got them apart. I ordered both seals to be sure. The input shaft seal on the transfer case was the one that was leaking.
I drove a small screw a little into the seal, gripped it with the vise grip attachment on a small slide hammer and extracted the old seal
The new seal from Mopar has grease applied to the sealing surface. Kind of interesting
I tend to make myself custom sized seal drivers like this if the job allows time for it. In this case I had plenty of time to make this in between the weekend work.
If you would like to print your own, export the stl or fork it to make your own version by going to this link in onshape.
Transfer case ready to go back in. It was at this point that I had to enlist the help of a buddy to get that thing back in. Reassembly went very smoothly from that point on and no more interesting photos were taken.
Done. I'm still breaking it in and also getting used to the bite point. The heavy flywheel is pretty noticeable. It is definitely less prone to stalling, less affected by rev hang between gears, and also a much smoother idle. Another noticeable thing is the sound of the engine starting up is different. It's not like its labored sounding with the heavy flywheel, it's not better or worse, good or bad; it's just different.
In summary it's too early to tell how it will serve me but so far so good. I know there are a lot of people who had good results at first and end up with Chewbacca noises and even worse trouble shifting into first and reverse due to the clutch not completely disengaging. Some were found to have had the wrong grease or way too much used when installed by a shop. I wanted to avoid that, so I did it myself. I also sort of deviated from the lubrication of the transmission input shaft to experiment a bit. I cleaned the shaft of all the old lube and dust like instructed, however before applying the new grease from ACT, I sprayed a little high temperature dry film moly lube on the shaft and then used very minimal grease supplied from ACT (I wiped most of it away). They theory is people seem to have issues after 10-12k miles and at that point there is enough friction material dust build up that the disc starts sticking on the splines and not releasing fully from the flywheel and causing issues getting into first and reverse. I don't know that moly lube will fix this but it does apply a nice coating and doesn't allow dust to stick to it. The disc seems to glide really smooth after it was put on. It works well in gun actions with high cycles so it could work. I don't know. I'll report back some day, but seeing as I only drive about 6-7k miles a year with this, it would be a couple years before I put enough miles and dust on it to get any feel for if it is working.
New ACT JP6-HDSS kit.
The factory twin disc looked really good, which is not surprising because I wasn't having any trouble with it. The truck only has ~35k miles on it. I can only assume that the second disc on the other side looks just as good.
The ~42lb flywheel is a bear to get lined up correctly while working off the floor.
The only tricky part about lining the trans up was fighting to keep the wiring harness that runs across the top of the bellhousing from getting pinched while fighting the bracket that holds the fuel/evap lines from getting trapped in between. This part sucks doing by yourself. Enlist a friend for this part.
In addition to doing the clutch, I also noticed I was leaking fluid between the trans and the transfer case. Since both use the same ATF, I wasn't sure which one of the two it was until I got them apart. I ordered both seals to be sure. The input shaft seal on the transfer case was the one that was leaking.
I drove a small screw a little into the seal, gripped it with the vise grip attachment on a small slide hammer and extracted the old seal
The new seal from Mopar has grease applied to the sealing surface. Kind of interesting
I tend to make myself custom sized seal drivers like this if the job allows time for it. In this case I had plenty of time to make this in between the weekend work.
If you would like to print your own, export the stl or fork it to make your own version by going to this link in onshape.
Transfer case ready to go back in. It was at this point that I had to enlist the help of a buddy to get that thing back in. Reassembly went very smoothly from that point on and no more interesting photos were taken.
Done. I'm still breaking it in and also getting used to the bite point. The heavy flywheel is pretty noticeable. It is definitely less prone to stalling, less affected by rev hang between gears, and also a much smoother idle. Another noticeable thing is the sound of the engine starting up is different. It's not like its labored sounding with the heavy flywheel, it's not better or worse, good or bad; it's just different.
In summary it's too early to tell how it will serve me but so far so good. I know there are a lot of people who had good results at first and end up with Chewbacca noises and even worse trouble shifting into first and reverse due to the clutch not completely disengaging. Some were found to have had the wrong grease or way too much used when installed by a shop. I wanted to avoid that, so I did it myself. I also sort of deviated from the lubrication of the transmission input shaft to experiment a bit. I cleaned the shaft of all the old lube and dust like instructed, however before applying the new grease from ACT, I sprayed a little high temperature dry film moly lube on the shaft and then used very minimal grease supplied from ACT (I wiped most of it away). They theory is people seem to have issues after 10-12k miles and at that point there is enough friction material dust build up that the disc starts sticking on the splines and not releasing fully from the flywheel and causing issues getting into first and reverse. I don't know that moly lube will fix this but it does apply a nice coating and doesn't allow dust to stick to it. The disc seems to glide really smooth after it was put on. It works well in gun actions with high cycles so it could work. I don't know. I'll report back some day, but seeing as I only drive about 6-7k miles a year with this, it would be a couple years before I put enough miles and dust on it to get any feel for if it is working.
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