Clutch not releasing completely

[Kinarfi]

Went for a ride out at the Little Sahara Dunes a while back and my clutch started not releasing completely, it got so bad that I had to turn the engine off to put it in gear. Took it for another ride and still had the problem, and assuming the worsts, I assumed that the fork for the throw out bearing was breaking or warping, so I ordered an inspection scope so I could look inside to make sure that was the problem, I wanted one of these anyway, and figured I'd be able to make a hole in the bell housing and stick the camera end in and see what was happening, as I was make the hole, I was also blowing the dust and drill chips out and I could see that the pressure plate was moving and I drilled some more and blew air in some more and I jacked the rear end off the ground and when I put the clutch in, the wheels would stop, so I took it out for a little ride and I shifted beautifully and went into all gears beautifully and it seems to be fixed now, and all I did was blow the dust and dirt out. I pulled the little plate off at the bottom rear and put a vacuum there while blowing in air from above through the hole I made, but if I had it to do over again, I would just pull the sensor and blow air in through there, maybe pull the starter and blow air in there too.

[kenfain]

Thanks for the heads up for all the Joyner owners! Glad there's a happy ending, and a handy new tool also! That housing must have had a lot of stuff in it. Have you given any thought, as to how to prevent a recurrence? Or is the clean out gonna be the best way to deal with this?

[Guest Lenny]

I caulked mine completely to seal it off. Main areas are around the starter and bottom plate.

[bruhaw]

I had the same problem last year and it was due to dirt accumulating around the TO bearing like it was on Kinarfi's. I pulled the transmission and had it looked at and it had some bad syncros so while it was out I replaced the entire transmission and it was not cheap.($1300) Now I have a back up tranny but still waiting on the syncros from Casey at JMC. Syncros are cheap but couldn't get them anywhere. I did the same thing based on Lenny's and Casey's advice and sealed everything off so it doesn't happen again. There are a number of areas where fine dust can get into and get trapped on the slight amount of grease on the TO bearing. If you ever have problems getting it into gear and then it seems fine every now and then it is because the bearing and fork are sticking and hanging up on the input shaft. Sometimes good and then bad. I actually thought it was a bad master or clutch cylinder but unfortunately it wasn't because I had changed those out too.