This is about my 2001 Dodge Dakota, 185,500 miles on it now and it still has the original clutch, reservoir, master and slave cylinders. It also still has the original NV3500 5 speed manual transmission. I drained and refilled the transmission with Pennzoil Synchromesh about 10,000 miles ago.
I never had any clutch type problems until today. I left work this afternoon, turned onto the main highway and soon as I got to about 30 mph I felt a "jerk" in the truck kind of like when you push in the clutch and let it back out real fast. Nothing changed with engine sound or RPM's, just had that hard jerk and the truck kept moving. It happened again about 5 or 6 times on the 20 mile ride home. I had no trouble at all accelerating to 50-60 mph, shifts were fine, no trouble going in or out of gear and I had no problems at all climbing a couple of long hills at 55-60 mph with the AC on. The clutch pedal does feel a bit more easy to move than it used to but I never really noticed it much until now.
I made it home OK and found the clutch fluid reservoir was low, it was only about half way full. I topped it off with clean DOT 3 and got my wife to operate the clutch pedal while I looked at the fluid level in the reservoir. The fluid did not move at all while she worked the pedal. Then I got under the truck and saw that there was a small amount of fluid leaking from the bottom of the slave cylinder and I had a light-colored brake fluid stain on my driveway right below the slave cylinder. I chocked the front wheels, started the engine, put it in fifth gear and let out the clutch slowly without pressing the accelerator pedal. The engine stalled and shut down. My very basic understanding of the clutch system tells me if that test made the engine stall and shut down then the clutch itself is OK and I need to replace the reservoir, master, slave and hose. I read up on it in my FSM and it does not look to be very difficult, especially with new sealed parts.
Am I on the right track here with replacing the hydraulics or do you guys think I am looking at a whole new clutch? I do not tow anything, I never go off road and I drive the truck easy, I do not hot rod it at all. I rarely ever get over 70 mph and that is only on the interstate. I usually only drive about 50 to 55 mph on local roads in my 40 mile round trip commute to work and back home again. My truck will stay parked until I get this problem fixed.
Thanks for any info on this.
I never had any clutch type problems until today. I left work this afternoon, turned onto the main highway and soon as I got to about 30 mph I felt a "jerk" in the truck kind of like when you push in the clutch and let it back out real fast. Nothing changed with engine sound or RPM's, just had that hard jerk and the truck kept moving. It happened again about 5 or 6 times on the 20 mile ride home. I had no trouble at all accelerating to 50-60 mph, shifts were fine, no trouble going in or out of gear and I had no problems at all climbing a couple of long hills at 55-60 mph with the AC on. The clutch pedal does feel a bit more easy to move than it used to but I never really noticed it much until now.
I made it home OK and found the clutch fluid reservoir was low, it was only about half way full. I topped it off with clean DOT 3 and got my wife to operate the clutch pedal while I looked at the fluid level in the reservoir. The fluid did not move at all while she worked the pedal. Then I got under the truck and saw that there was a small amount of fluid leaking from the bottom of the slave cylinder and I had a light-colored brake fluid stain on my driveway right below the slave cylinder. I chocked the front wheels, started the engine, put it in fifth gear and let out the clutch slowly without pressing the accelerator pedal. The engine stalled and shut down. My very basic understanding of the clutch system tells me if that test made the engine stall and shut down then the clutch itself is OK and I need to replace the reservoir, master, slave and hose. I read up on it in my FSM and it does not look to be very difficult, especially with new sealed parts.
Am I on the right track here with replacing the hydraulics or do you guys think I am looking at a whole new clutch? I do not tow anything, I never go off road and I drive the truck easy, I do not hot rod it at all. I rarely ever get over 70 mph and that is only on the interstate. I usually only drive about 50 to 55 mph on local roads in my 40 mile round trip commute to work and back home again. My truck will stay parked until I get this problem fixed.
Thanks for any info on this.