1972 cj-5 question

Hello everyone. I have a 1972 cj-5 that belonged to a friend of mine who
was a marine in Iraq. My wife and I were watching it for him while he was gone, but unfortunately he was killed in action. His father wants to sell it to me for a pretty good price, but i have a question. I think the clutch is shot. I had to replace the clutch cable and while I was under there I pushed on the shift fork and it seemed to move all the way back very easily. does this indicate a worn out pressure plate? The jeep is not running right now (due to a bad battery) but I hope to have it running soon so I can see if the clutch even works at all. The ease of moving the shift fork concerns me though. Any ideas? Thanks

 

Wow—sorry to hear about your friend, my condolences go out to his family.

 

same here

 

Thanks, He was a good guy. He was a Marine through and through and I'm sure he died fighting.

 

Sorry to hear about your friend.

I think your judgement about the clutch is probably right - you wouldn't typically be able to push the clutch fork to disengage the clutch with your hand. It's surprising that a '72 would still have the clutch cable. That cable was very troublesome and Jeep made a kit to replace the cable with the bellcrank used in '73 and later Jeeps. These cables typically got swapped out for the bellcrank kit during the warranty period.

Does the cable move the shift fork like you think it should? Have you adjusted the clutch after replacing the cable? If so, I think you need to start it up and try it.