slave cylinder???

[BigDaddESean]

I have a 4.2 in an 89 Wrangler. The clutch fluid is leaking badly. A couple people told me it sounds like the slave cylinder. Is it inside the tranny? I need to know so I know if we'll fix it out on the street or if I should tow it to the shop I work at and get it ona lift.

[Yucca-man]

Where is the leak coming from? It's pretty common to see a leak from the master cylinder (the one connected to the clutch pedal) especially on a 13-year old Jeep. Small misalignment of the pedal to the plane of the pushrod will do that. You will see evidence of this inside the Jeep, as the brake fluid drips down the clutch pedal.

The master cylinder may have a leak at the fitting, in which case you'll see leakage starting near the master cylinder, under the hood.

The 89 YJ slave cylinder is inside the transmission bellhousing and will require removing the transmission to replace. While you're at it, this is a great time to replace the rear main seal, and look carefully at the condition of the clutch and associated parts.

There are newer, external slave cylinders that were used on the later 4.0L XJs, they require using the newer bellhousing of course. I think they will bolt up to your 258...

Leakage from the slave cylinder is sometimes hard to see, as it gets distributed into the road grime and gunk under the Jeep. You'll recognize it since you have to refill the master cylinder but can't find the leak :eek:

Be careful and consider replacing the clutch line if you replace the slave cylinder. The rubber line is 13 years old and has been sitting within inches of the exhaust that whole time. My 89 XJ clutch line finally gave out when I replaced the slave and master at the same time. The extra internal pressure was too much for it.

Good luck!

[BigDaddESean]

it's coming right out of the bell housing. Everything under the hood is dry. Maybe this is why the gear oil has been lookin kind of milky too. YIPPEEEEE!!!! haha I guess we'll drop the tranny then. Thank you very much for the help. Later.

[Paulwpetrea]

When I was starting to do mine ('90YJ, 4.2L, AX-15), I was advised to see about changing the bell housing. This way, you could go from an internal, to an external slave. MUCH easier to deal with, when they leak.

Oh, please don't say, "It won't need to be changed for a long time.". I put mine in. Six months later ... the slave started leaking AGAIN. Oh well, I still didn't learn. I kept the same setup.