? clutch ?

[mstephenson]

I have a '99 2500 4x4 5-speed. A few weekends ago I was pulling a trailer that was more than 7K. I went to shift from 5th to 4th and it wouldn't go into gear. I tried to put it back into 5th, but realized very quickly no gears were accessible. We looked at the slave and master cylinder for the transmission, but there wasn't any leaking (thinking this was the problem). When the engine was on I couldn't shift, but when the engine was off I could hit all the gears. ???



Once the truck was unhooked, my friend tried to start in 4th, but it died out. We did it again and everything worked perfectly. He hit all gears just fine. We didn't finish pulling the trailer the distance afraid we would really break down in the middle of nowhere.



Has anyone ever heard of this?

Is it the clutch?

If so, should I go ahead and replace so I don't have to worry about pulling the next time?

If so, is there a heavy duty replacement part you could recommend?



Thanks,



Michele St.

 

[MCummings]

Your clutch hydraulic master/slave cylinders are probably leaking internally.



Your experiance is what happened to my truck.

Engine off could get all gears, engine on no gears, one thing you either didn't say, or isn't happening to you... My clutch pedal went wayy soft. Just a slight push could make the pedal go all the way to the bottom. I limped my truck around for 3 days without any clutch dis-engagement. I had to shift without the clutch (matching RPM with gears), and if I had to stop, I had to turn my truck off, then crank it up in 1st gear to take off.

A few clutch engagements/dis-engagemnets before the failure I could get some clutch action but the system would quickly loose pressure

,,example,, I could idle in 1st gear a few seconds, then the clutch would slowly start engaging, until the clutch was fully engaged and the clutch pedal was on the floor. If I gave the clutch a few seconds released, I could then dis-engage the clutch, but only for a few seconds, until the clutch was fully engaged again.



I went to Jeff Prince, with Performance Diesels Prince Brothers in Chapman Ranch, Texas. He replaced all the hydraulic cylinders, and my clutch has been working perfectly since then. Jeff told me that he replaces the hydraulic clutch systems on Dodges fairly often and it is known to be a very weak system.



The Hydraulic system comes in one unit. Both master and slave cylinders with the hydraulic lines, and the resevoir bottle are pre-filled and purged with fluid. It was no more than a bolt on replacement operation.



Hope this helps,, the only way I knew my hydrulic clutch system was going out was because it went out slowly. My truck had no leaks, and the hydraulic fluid in the resevoir was full and descently clean for 79K.



MerrickNJr

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Mine did the same thing as Merricks. In my case it was the master cylinder that was leaking, but as he said you have to buy the entire assy as a complete unit - it's EASY to replace, took me about 15 minutes. In my case I couldn't see any fluid at first, then I pulled the safety switch back a bit (it's right on the rod on the inside of the cab) there was fluid behind it. How does the clutch pedal feel?

 

[rashwor]

Replacing hydraulic assembly

For those who replaced the whole assembly, did you replace it with another DC assembly or an aftermarket. If you replaced it with an aftermarket assembly, where did you get it, is it better than the DC assembly, and how can we get in touch with the vendor?

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

It's not available aftermarket yet for '98+ trucks, I called around everywhere. Had to buy it from the dealer .



-Steve

 

[mstephenson]

Yall, my truck had just hit 101K. Those warranty people know what they're doing.



My pedal isn't as strong as it was at say... 50K. I thought it was just miles. BUT it wasn't mushy. My brother did comment about it though and thought the clutch might be starting to slip.



I would imagine the clutch will be the next thing to go out so does anyone have recommendations for a good heavy duty aftermarket? I will be cranking up the torque and hp fairly soon.



Thanks for the help,



Michele St.

 

[JJW_ND]

If the problem came and went and all appears good now, I had this happen to me at about 80K miles pulling a heavy load. Went away and never came back. At 150K the 5sp was changed out and did clutch at the same time. The orginal factory clutch was very worn and had a broken spring on hub. This is the only thing I can think might cause the problem is a broken spring.



jjw