Jeep Cherokee -tranny problems

Just bought a used 92 jeep cherokee with 4 wheel drive. The manual transmission will not go into gear. Is the clutch not releasing fully and if so can I adjust this? Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance......  

Sounds like either a throw-out bearing problem or your hydraulic clutch linkage.  If you can't bleed the system you're going end up buying stuff.  There is no adjustment.  

Sounds like a slave or clutch master cylinder failure. It is not the throw out bearing. Could be a bad pressure plate too but my nickle is on the slave/master cylinder  

A bad throwout bearing can cause enough friction to engage the trans enough to cause shifting problems.  Under hard prolonged use of a bad throwout bearing the heat generated is enough to sieze the assembly together also eventually destroying the clutch fork.  My '78 did that.  I had replaced the clutch, but neglected to change the throwout bearing.  After replacing the clutch fork and throwout bearing it shifted fine.

They will sing out loud and clear before they do that much damage. I never drop a tranny and change a clutch without throwout bearing replacement anyway. But this is not problem here. Slave/master hydraulic clutch problems on a Jeep are not the uncommon, usually in is the slave that goes bad first.  

Whatever.  Didn't you say you owned an automatic?

I have owned both and the second 4x4 I had was a year old 1972 GMC 3/4 ton P/U with 4.10 spicer axles, SM465 tranny, NP 205 xfer case, 350 4bbl and factory dual gas tanks. Now that was a truck in its day and still would be today. It had a very strong motor and would really "light up" 32 inch tall split rim 750 x 16 10 ply traction cleated tires in second gear with little effort. I drove it for 140,000 miles over ten years and hauled grain trailers weighing as much as 23,000 lbs with it! That is when trucks were trucks, not these car trucks they build today. My wife currently drives a 2000 4 cyl Cherokee with a manual that she bought new so I am very familar with the setup Jeep uses. In my 30 plus years of driving I have seen a few clutches go bad and I know how to read their simptoms. There is very little mechnical on a vehical that I cannot diagnose by sound or feel alone. BTW, I have owned eight 4x4's and one of them for 18 years (a 79 J20 Jeep P/U I still have) and another for 15 years (a 89 GMC Suburban bought new and still own) and I currently own 3 4x4's at this time. How many have you owned and for how long?

Wow!! Now that's a story.  How 'bout you tell your grandkids.  I'll be out wheeling.

No "story" to it, it is for real. The J20 I have now came from the same farm that I used to work at many years ago (father in laws and when I got it it was 6 years old with old 25,000 miles on it)) it is would pretty much match my old GMC in pulling power at low speeds and actually had a bit of a edge because you could use low range on the full time 4WD Quadratrack drive system in the J20 on the road. THe 360 in it was stronger than my 350 below 2500 rpm and and was a great match to the TH400 it had. ( that old truck is still very strong off line, stronger than my 2000 K3500 at starting out a load. That AMC 360 is a great motor for off idle torque) It ran out of breath past 3000rpm when my old GMC was just getting its second wind. 13,000 to 15,000lbs total grain trailer weight was about all you could get out of field usually, to go heavier you had to be loaded on paved road which was a bit of a hassle sometimes. You would only go to 20,000lb plus when you were getting behind in getting it to the mill from the field. You always knew you weight because you weighted in full and empty with each trip. Also, traction on the road was a problem sometimes with GMC as with very heavy pulls on very hot days you would leave tracks "in" the blacktop on uphill stretches as it would tear the surface a might. Even fully loaded it could slip tires on pavement in slow motion in granny starting on a grade while getting rolling again. Just because you have never done it, do not assume it is not possible as back then, 3/4 ton P/U's were pretty tuff vehicals.  I knew a guy that had a Chevy C40 truck with a grain bed on it and it would hold a overload of about 12,000 lbs of grain (it did for many years) and then they would hook a 12,000 lb grain wagon behind it.  It had a 6. something rear axle and a 283 with a 4 speed and many times this load had to be pulled from the field as it just could not start the load out if field was soft and it would not spin when stuck (image axle strain, 7 to 1 granny and 6 to 1 final drive full load stalled!) If you did this with a modern like truck you would tear frame apart pulling it from field with a load and loaded wagon attached. I miss the old iron.  

you convinced me you know what you are talking about. Let me ask you this:  The Jeep in question is a 4.L 4wheel drive, that once in gear will run OK in all gears without any noise. It is sometimes just so hard to get in gear, I really have to push hard on the clutch to engage it. I see no adjustments on the clutch mechanism. Plenty of fluid in the clutch resovoir.

Do you think the clutch line needs bleeding?

thanks in advance  

It is self bleeding and adjusting. My guess is that the slave cylinder on the bell housing is leaking internally and not fully releasing clutch. You could try to bleed it but make sure resevor is full first before bleeding it. Usually the "slaves" go bad long before master clutch cylinder does.

If your clutch is shot it will still go into gear with the motor off.

OK it was the clutch master cylinder.  Took it out, cleaned it and bleed the hydralic line.  Clutch works fine now.  Had to buy a Haynes Manual to figure out how to do it.  Now if I could only fix the power steering leak!!!!!!

thanks  

Were is it leaking?