I'm having a clutch disengagement issue with my 2000 Dakota (4.7L, 4WD, NV3500). This may be a long-winded post, and it's also my first here. I've done A LOT of research on this, so...thanks in advance.


I replaced the following with brand-new parts:

1. Clutch and Pressure Plate (12" Sachs kit)

2. Pilot bearing (with one from Sachs kit)

3. Flywheel from a 2001 Dakota (AMS Automotive)

4. Clutch fork (ATP) and OEM Mopar Pivot Ball

5. Release bearing (from Sachs kit)

6. Pre-bled Master/Slave Kit (LuK)

7. Transmission Oil (Pennzoil Synchromesh)


The clutch is grabbing right off the floor now, and I can get the transmission into forward gears only when the truck is running. Reverse grinds when trying to shift into it at idle from a stop. I replaced everything above because the truck has over 180k on it and the clutch was grabbing towards the top (more on this later). I replaced the clutch hydraulics before doing the rest of the clutch job because it's a cheap initial fix. However, it didn't solve my original issue, so fast-forward back to replacing everything. I believe the initial issue of high engagement stems from the first finding once I removed the transmission and got it on my bench. It appears that the clutch fork was backwards (i.e. slots were on the right-side when staring in to the bellhousing of the transmission). Also, the stock part number was up-side down (and I read that the part number should be right-side up in the 2003 service manual on this site). I believe installing it backwards was likely overextending the clutch, hence the high engagement.


I scrutinized the old flywheel against the new 2001 flywheel I purchased and they were qualatatively the same. I pulled the old pilot bushing out and replaced it with the one from the clutch kit. I then installed the new flywheel, clutch disk, and pressure plate and torqued them to spec (flywheel bolts to 70ft lbs and clutch cover bolts to 30ft lbs). The alignment tool came out and was installed easily again after torquing everything. I installed the new pivot ball with the washer that was on the old one into the transmission, ensuring that the slots for the release bearing clip were to the left when looking at it. That isn't really discussed in the 2000 service manual, but one of the drawings supports that and it is also mentioned in the 2003 Dakota FSM.


So, now that I have given some background - I have some questions:

1. When changing the clutch, I did let the slave cylinder just sit with the rod all the way out. At no point did I disconnect it (they are a sealed system from the manufacturer), nor did I push the clutch pedal while the slave was out of the transmission. I can't conceive that air could have gotten in there somehow....could it? Is this a "replace everytime you remove" kind of part?

2. Was I right to purchase the 2001 flywheel? I wonder if there is a step-height difference?

3. Can someone confirm which way the clutch fork is supposed to sit? Again, I see all the evidence pointing towards the release bearing slots to being left of the input shaft, as they were the opposite way when I pulled the transmission.

4. To me, this sounds like I need to add some washers behind the pivot ball (in addition to the washer that is there) to give me more engagement. Is that a thing with these trucks? I always remember it being a hot-issue with the old Eclipse/Talon.


Am I missing anything? I'm not looking forward to having to possibly take it all apart again, but I will if I need to. Again, thanks in advance for any advice.

 

I see you also posted on the thread I had for a similar issue. My clutch wasn't biting right off the floor like yours, but the rest of the symptoms match.

In my case, spacing the pivot ball out certainly helped. If you're going to do it, but an extra washer or two compared to my set up. However, I think it's the Sachs clutch kit that's the issue. Something is off with that 12in kit, and I think it's the disc. If you look at the kit, it uses a GMC-18 pressure plate, which is made by PHC Valeo and then a Sachs clutch disc. I reckon that with that setup there is some thickness stack-up issues that causes the clutch disc to drag on the pressure plate and flywheel. The way I went about trying to fix that is to push the pressure plate further, by adding the washers under the pivot ball, to eliminate this drag. It did help, but didn't totally eliminate the issue.

My suggestion if you're going to drop the trans again, and have the funds, is to dump the Sachs kit in favor of a Valeo kit. The Valeo is what came out of my truck and it worked just fine. It just seems that 12" Sachs kit is slightly off.

 

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't able to get the 11" OE Valeo kit, but I did purchase a Sachs 11" OE kit. I'll try putting that one in. The one that came out of the truck was an 11 7/8" kit. I believe it was a LuK kit and it was installed on an OEM 2001+ flywheel. That combination likely was okay too, except whomever installed it put the clutch fork on backwards (which changes the geometry and was likely what was creating the engagement issue I was initially seeing). I'll update again when I get the new 11" OE Sachs kit installed, which will likely be Friday evening. I can take the trans out of this truck pretty quick now...

 

Got the transmission out in less than 2 hours this time - so that was cool. I installed the new Sachs 11" clutch on the flywheel and torqued everything to spec. I'll get the transmission back on the Truck Sunday and we'll see what happens. Stay tuned...

 

If you can lift the truck up high enough to get a tranny jack under it then the whole process if pretty quick. Once you do it once, there are very little surprises next time.

Did the new clutch kit improve things?

 

Hey, sorry about the long delay. Took me some time to finally get back to this project. The 11" Sachs clutch was the way to go. Engagement is spot-on, like an inch or inch and a half off the floor and it fully disengages as well. I did not add any addtional shims - still using the factory washer behind the pivot ball. Thanks again for your reply and for checking in again - I think we can say that the 12" Sachs clutch is not a viable option after all; dispite what Sachs says in their "TSB". Also, I can confirm for all of the 2000 Dakota 4.7 owners that the 2001+ flywheel does work just fine in our applications. I know there were some folks asking that question in the past and the parts companies do not list it as working...however, it does.

 

Amazing, thanks for the follow up. Very happy we can add this to the knowledge bank! I should’ve swapped out the Sachs 12” kit when I dropped the tranny a 2nd time….oh well, this is just a bush truck for me.

Cheers!