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Truck won't go into gear

22K views 30 replies 5 participants last post by  lwards 
#1 ·
Back on the troubleshooting forum again.
I have a 1998 dodge dakota v6 3.9l with more than a quatermillion miles on it.
Never had problemns with my dakota until last 25k miles. I'm at about 227kmiles.

So my truck started up fine, i went about half mile down the road and was realzing it was near impossible to shift into gear.
So i thought i'm in real trouble.
I get a red light and put the truck in N. As light turns green i go to engage first gear.. won't happen. won't budge, i mean the stick would break before it even got close. perfect timing for the great economy ha. i even tried shifting with out use of the clutch. you know ramming tho rpms to 3.5 or 4. still won't go in. so i shut the truck off. put it in first and start it. well it goes in gear but made the most horrible grinding and cluncking sound. Iv had to do this about three times now. So i have no idea whats wrong. the clutch? master cylinder? slave cylinder? transmission...
i'm thinking it may be the tranny as its leaking everywhere... don't want to fix seals becasue itll cost more to fix seals than to buy a new tranny. also the tranny mount is all messed up. No more rubber sepearting the tranny from tranny mount. any input is much appreciated!!
 
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#2 ·
clutch spind down time
start it in netural and wait a few secs... try and put it in reverse if it grinds.. which it does i think that indicates bad pressure plate or clutch disc.

clutch mounting bracket may be cracked allowing flex thus allowing the clutch to only engage half way.
to dark outside to deal with that right now tho
 
#3 ·
what mounts? sorry i don't have the best technical vocab i'm a ranch hand n just fuck with shit till it works. i just drove it everythings fine...for now. no i didnt mean that it will only go to reverse sorry. i ment the below...
i was testing the clutch spin down time... and if it grinds when tying to put it in reverse it indicates bad pressure plate or clutch disc.and it was grinding when ttrying to go into reverse eailer.
 
#5 ·
might be your slave cylinder..... not building pressure to disengage your clutch, just put one in my truck....... if not sinkros in the tranny are not lineing up or the shift forks are bent.
 
#8 ·
I have a great one for you Dakota fellas. we have a 2003 V8 Dakota and the clutch just won't disengage....happened suddenly on the way home-no warning-grinding gears to try and make it home. Husband is a mechanic, so he replaced the slave...Still had the issue. It won't go into reverse without turning it off and putting the clutch pedal to the floor. We replaced, the clutch assembly, fork, ball, input shaft, pilot bearing, slave cylinder x2, and he tore apart the clutch pedal assembly and inspected it, it was fine. Yet, pedal to the floor to struggle getting it into gear...someone have any solution or solved their problem with their clutches?
 
#10 ·
Nope not yet. We purchased another master slave and husband is building a tester to see how far the clutch is pushing to disengage the fingers. He's not done building it yet, but soon. I mean, we've replaced everything in the clutch. There's nothing left, yet still having the clutch not disengage unless the pedal is to the floor and even then it's iffy.
 
#11 ·
Thanks for the reply. Just dropped mine back off at the tranny shop. They tried it and said yeah there`s a problem!
They are thinking that air got into the hydraulics when it was disconnected. I`m not convinced. Problem is there is no bleed point on the oem hydraulic master/slave. As a matter of interest, what clutch did you install? Mine was a LUK.
Very light on the pedal, almost too light.Mine is also a 2003 4.7. I`ll keep you up to date to see if they find an issue tomorrow. Cheers.
 
#15 ·
Any luck yet? I am still waiting on the oem master/slave kit. Is there any way you can extend the length of the slave push rod. I`m guessing with the added travel needed to disengage a new clutch plate and also the skimming of the flywheel there isn`t quite enough length on the slave rod?
 
#16 ·
Some of the threads we've read say that they put washers under the pivot ball, but in all honesty that did not work for us. We tried. Some people also made a longer rod for the master slave, but again, how do you know how long to make it without wrecking everything? My husband measured everything also; the thickness of the clutch plates to the old one etc...thinking that was it...nope. It was all the same size. some people also had put the clutch plate in backwards and turning it around helped. He finished the tester for the master slave, and travel on the old one was 3/4 of an inch. The newer ones were less than that. Which is weird. He said he's going to set up the old clutch and see if he can disengage it with the masterslave now. Again, though, it's going to take time. sigh...He loves this truck.
 
#17 ·
My husband said you could, but it wouldn't make any difference. He said you need at least an 1 and 1/8th of extension on the rod, and he's only getting 3/4 of an inch on one of them and 7/8 on the other. It's frustrating. Have you had any resolve with your truck? This is his baby. Drove it new off the lot in 2003 and it still looks like it's brand new
 
#18 ·
No, the shop is scratching their heads too. They are going to take the tranny out again tomorrow and see if there is an issue inside. They checked with the Luk rep and he was not aware of any issues with their clutches. They`ve had the truck now for almost 2 weeks.Is your husband using the Dodge master/slave or aftermarket?
 
#21 ·
No luck still. They took the new clutch out and replaced it with another new unit. No change . I brought in a new hydraulic oem master slave kit but they come with a quick connect. I am not going to use it as there is a slight chance air could get in and they are also very expensive. I have ordered in a Dorman all in one pre bled unit from Rock Auto. Should be here Friday. That is the last resort. If that dosen`t work then i am pretty much done with it.
 
#22 ·
Here's our story. Coming home from town the truck suddenly wouldn't disengage. We ordered a master slave from the dealership, it was $500 and some change...it didn't work. So the husband tore out the tranny, found that the pilot bearing piled up. Replaced it, and all the seals, and put it back together, still didn't work. Tore it apart again and we replaced everything else; clutch, fork, pivot ball and it still didn't work. Got another master slave, didn't work. Ordered another one, didn't work....we feel your pain. He can drive it, but he has to shut it off to put it in reverse, and then start it up and drive again. He's got to have the clutch pedal on the floor to get it to change gears and it's still iffy. It just doesn't make sense. He put together a contraption to see how much movement the rod has to make, 7/8 of an inch is the most one of the master slaves will move. The rest are pathetic. He estimates he needs 1 1/8th for the bloody thing to work. So what the heck?
 
#23 ·
Such a coincidence. Mine was still changing ok before i took it in to the shop, but i was getting a weird rattle mostly in reverse. When they pulled it apart, the pilot bearing had let go and had chewed the input shaft. So new clutch was installed as it was down to the rivets, and the input shaft replaced which required a complete tear down of the gearbox. So now i`m in to this truck for $2200 Canadian and i can`t even change gear now. As i said on my last post, one last throw of the dice with another master/slave, should be here tomorrow.
 
#24 ·
Wait.

Did they resurface the flywheel?

Did they then SHIM THE PRESSURE PLATE??

The one usually requires the other due to it all moving forward so that the throw out bearing is located too far from the flywheel, keeping it from pressing on the pressure plate properly, if it's not been shimmed.

RwP
 
#25 ·
The throw out bearing is a issue with these Dakotas 98-99 through to 2005. And yes, he replaced the input shaft also. The clutch was completely replaced as was the flywheel. There was hardly any wear on ours because my husband is a very fussy vehicle owner and mechanic. We're probably in about as much as you are, if not a few hundred more. We also have the rockauto masterslave here, but he's doing some more 'out of truck' adjustments to try and find out why the rod will not extend the required amount.
 
#29 ·
Just received the Dorman master/slave unit from Rock Auto. It was terribly packaged and one of the shear ties that holds the piston in the slave is already broken. I know you are supposed to leave the ties intact until you bolt in the slave and then on the first pedal push it will shear the ties. Hopefully it won`t make a difference. Will drop it at the shop Monday but i don`t have high expectations.
 
#27 ·
It might not, but before you throw the towel in, I'd get the total thickness checked, make sure that it's within tolerance, and shimmed as appropriate.

Since it being skimmed would move the pressure plate forward, requiring further depressing of the throw out bearing ...

RwP
 
#28 ·
With hindsight i would have got the shop to shim the flywheel. I did mention it at the time but they said it was irrelevant but they have now
taken it apart twice, and now its back together so i don`t think they would be too accommodating to shim it now just on the off chance.
 
#31 ·
Hi, sorry I didn't get this response, but thought I'd check in. I think I ordered that one from rock auto. My husband hasn't put it in yet though because he was trying to check the travel on the other three we went through. I'll let him know. On a good note it seems like there's a less issue with this one. He can put it into reverse without it grinding...ech. but still has some disengaging issues.
 
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