Well my 2008 Rubicon UNL 6-speed just went over 100K miles and the rear main seal leak started leaking enough to mark where I park.

I have been searching the forums for clutch/TOB guidance as I am not sure if I should just go with the OEM replacement or find aftermarket. It seems some choose the Centerforce, Luk, or SPEC kits with decent results, but what about the throwout bearing? My original TOB is going strong still, but did I just get lucky?

Also, when anyone has completed this job, do you usually change the master and related components as well?

Thanks for the help, just trying to get geared up for this process and make sure I address everything while I have the transmission out.

 

I just changed mine at Thanksgiving and went Spec stage 1 for just under $300 delivered. It comes with a new throwout bearing and I elected to also replace my pilot bearing since I was in there. I broke a clip on the tcase, not the white one but the green one, and had to replace that too.

I'm at 400 miles into my break-in period and the clutch definitely has more feedback than before. It is also smoother when you dump the clutch- think launch into traffic.

I changed my tcase fluid since I dropped it separately and I had replaced the slave only a few months ago (leaking) so I left that "new" one in there but also had a newer one in my box ready to go on if something went wrong.

 

I was in the same boat as you this past summer. Only, it turned out to be my oil pan seal leaking...NOT the rear main seal. It seemed to be the culprit until we got the trans loose and there was no evidence of a leak. The RMS runs about $100, and isn't really known to leak on the JK's. The oil pan gasket was only around $30. Take that for what it's worth.

I went with an OE clutch, seeing as how I was at 110k miles, and still on the factory clutch. I went with a Centerforce throwout bearing. I am now experiencing the throwout bearing chatter. There are lots of threads on it. The sound goes away when you apply even the slightest amount of psi on the clutch. I was just told to go with it, but it drives me absolutely insane. It drives just fine with the OE clutch on 35's and 5.38 gears. I'm weighted down with all of the goodies as well. Just my .02. Do some research and try to find out which TOB's have the chatter, and steer clear. Best of luck!

 

My experience, replaced clutch at 95K miles with CF because of noisy TOB. Only TOB option at that time was OEM. Old clutch was in very good shape--did not need to be changed, but did anyway. Elected to not swap slave cylinder because it is external and only a 30 minute job. New clutch felt great! Lighter pedal; more responsive than OEM.

Few thousand miles later while returning the long way from Mojave Trail run ended up broke down in middle of nowhere, Oregon, with failed slave cylinder. Barely made a dealer. Spent extra day on road and let them swap slave cylinder next day when it arrived from Portland. Few hundred dollars for parts, labor, extra day travel expenses.

Fast forward a couple years, cracked extension housing on transmission. Put CF TOB in, kept clutch. No problems with my CF TOB, though a friend said his started squealing fairly soon after install. Luck of the draw, I guess.

 

Did my clutch couple weeks ago and it is not making any noise now. Even now that it's cold, when it used to be extremely broken sounding.

Used OE clutch and national bearing, the stock clutch was still fine at 97k. Did not do slave but did, as others have apparently, a leaking rear main, oil pan gasket and fixed a coolant leak as well.

 

I have had excellent results for a variety of vehicles with South Bend Clutch, 800-988-4345.