No Clutch on my ZF6
04-24-2015, 11:18 AM
#1
Pro
Thread Starter
No Clutch on my ZF6
I was wondering if you guys can help me with this one.
I had my car in storage for 3 years. I wanted to bring the car back home one day and couldn't put it in gear. Simply no clutch. Was able to started but when clutch pedal was pressed I could not put it in gear. When car is off I can go thru all gears with no issues.
Checked the fluid in master cylinder and it was full.
I'm suspecting that slave cylinder went bad. My question is: can slave cylinder go bad without leaking?
Is it possible for it to have internal failure?
Or is it the master cylinder that's bad.
Is there a simple test I can perform to see which one is bad.
Slave cylinder is unbolted right now.
Btw. my car has ZF6 from '93. I have this transmission in my car for about 10 years. Both master cylinder and slave cylinder was changed when I did the conversion. This set up only has about 2K miles on it. I don't drive much as you see and now I'm trying to get my car ready for sale. Thinking of purchasing C6.
I had my car in storage for 3 years. I wanted to bring the car back home one day and couldn't put it in gear. Simply no clutch. Was able to started but when clutch pedal was pressed I could not put it in gear. When car is off I can go thru all gears with no issues.
Checked the fluid in master cylinder and it was full.
I'm suspecting that slave cylinder went bad. My question is: can slave cylinder go bad without leaking?
Is it possible for it to have internal failure?
Or is it the master cylinder that's bad.
Is there a simple test I can perform to see which one is bad.
Slave cylinder is unbolted right now.
Btw. my car has ZF6 from '93. I have this transmission in my car for about 10 years. Both master cylinder and slave cylinder was changed when I did the conversion. This set up only has about 2K miles on it. I don't drive much as you see and now I'm trying to get my car ready for sale. Thinking of purchasing C6.
04-24-2015, 11:49 AM
#2
Former Vendor
Member Since: Mar 2015
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I was wondering if you guys can help me with this one.
I had my car in storage for 3 years. I wanted to bring the car back home one day and couldn't put it in gear. Simply no clutch. Was able to started but when clutch pedal was pressed I could not put it in gear. When car is off I can go thru all gears with no issues.
Checked the fluid in master cylinder and it was full.
I'm suspecting that slave cylinder went bad. My question is: can slave cylinder go bad without leaking?
Is it possible for it to have internal failure?
Or is it the master cylinder that's bad.
Is there a simple test I can perform to see which one is bad.
Slave cylinder is unbolted right now.
Btw. my car has ZF6 from '93. I have this transmission in my car for about 10 years. Both master cylinder and slave cylinder was changed when I did the conversion. This set up only has about 2K miles on it. I don't drive much as you see and now I'm trying to get my car ready for sale. Thinking of purchasing C6.
I had my car in storage for 3 years. I wanted to bring the car back home one day and couldn't put it in gear. Simply no clutch. Was able to started but when clutch pedal was pressed I could not put it in gear. When car is off I can go thru all gears with no issues.
Checked the fluid in master cylinder and it was full.
I'm suspecting that slave cylinder went bad. My question is: can slave cylinder go bad without leaking?
Is it possible for it to have internal failure?
Or is it the master cylinder that's bad.
Is there a simple test I can perform to see which one is bad.
Slave cylinder is unbolted right now.
Btw. my car has ZF6 from '93. I have this transmission in my car for about 10 years. Both master cylinder and slave cylinder was changed when I did the conversion. This set up only has about 2K miles on it. I don't drive much as you see and now I'm trying to get my car ready for sale. Thinking of purchasing C6.
04-24-2015, 12:28 PM
#3
Pro
Sitting that long the brake fluid in the clutch slave could have slowly leaked and over time evaporates as it absorbs water leaving little or no trace. I would put some fresh fluid it it and try to bleed it. If necessary the slave may need to be changed. Not that difficult on your car.
Yes, bleed the system as a first step.
04-24-2015, 05:30 PM
#4
Race Director
Does the pedal feel like it is actually pushing on anything or is it soft and floppy feeling? Loose/ floppy feeling I would think the fluid is gone and there is nothing but air & a little sludge in the line.
A weird but possible problem that happened to a friend of mine: After the car was in storage for a while, the clutch disk stuck to the flywheel with what we assumed to be rust from dampness in the garage. The clutch felt like it was releasing, but you couldn't get the car in gear with it running. With the engine shut OFF, you could get it in gear, but when you hit the starter, even with the clutch depressed, the car would lurch forward! The cure was we backed it out in the street with it in neutral, stuck it in first gear and with the clutch pedal depressed, started it. The car lurched forward and started of down the street. With the clutch pedal still depressed, he hit the gas and WHIZZ, The engine broke loose the grip on the disk and then you could get it in and out of gear again. After a few start & stops the rust got rubbed off the flywheel and the clutch worked normally again.
A weird but possible problem that happened to a friend of mine: After the car was in storage for a while, the clutch disk stuck to the flywheel with what we assumed to be rust from dampness in the garage. The clutch felt like it was releasing, but you couldn't get the car in gear with it running. With the engine shut OFF, you could get it in gear, but when you hit the starter, even with the clutch depressed, the car would lurch forward! The cure was we backed it out in the street with it in neutral, stuck it in first gear and with the clutch pedal depressed, started it. The car lurched forward and started of down the street. With the clutch pedal still depressed, he hit the gas and WHIZZ, The engine broke loose the grip on the disk and then you could get it in and out of gear again. After a few start & stops the rust got rubbed off the flywheel and the clutch worked normally again.
04-24-2015, 10:22 PM
#6
Pro
Thread Starter
Does the pedal feel like it is actually pushing on anything or is it soft and floppy feeling? Loose/ floppy feeling I would think the fluid is gone and there is nothing but air & a little sludge in the line.
A weird but possible problem that happened to a friend of mine: After the car was in storage for a while, the clutch disk stuck to the flywheel with what we assumed to be rust from dampness in the garage. The clutch felt like it was releasing, but you couldn't get the car in gear with it running. With the engine shut OFF, you could get it in gear, but when you hit the starter, even with the clutch depressed, the car would lurch forward! The cure was we backed it out in the street with it in neutral, stuck it in first gear and with the clutch pedal depressed, started it. The car lurched forward and started of down the street. With the clutch pedal still depressed, he hit the gas and WHIZZ, The engine broke loose the grip on the disk and then you could get it in and out of gear again. After a few start & stops the rust got rubbed off the flywheel and the clutch worked normally again.
A weird but possible problem that happened to a friend of mine: After the car was in storage for a while, the clutch disk stuck to the flywheel with what we assumed to be rust from dampness in the garage. The clutch felt like it was releasing, but you couldn't get the car in gear with it running. With the engine shut OFF, you could get it in gear, but when you hit the starter, even with the clutch depressed, the car would lurch forward! The cure was we backed it out in the street with it in neutral, stuck it in first gear and with the clutch pedal depressed, started it. The car lurched forward and started of down the street. With the clutch pedal still depressed, he hit the gas and WHIZZ, The engine broke loose the grip on the disk and then you could get it in and out of gear again. After a few start & stops the rust got rubbed off the flywheel and the clutch worked normally again.
But if bleeding of the system or changing the slave cylinder won't help I might be tempted to do it.
04-25-2015, 05:42 AM
#7
Melting Slicks
Member Since: Nov 2005
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With the slave in position, have someone depress the clutch while you watch the fluid level in the master. If fluid level goes up, then the seal in the master is leaking and not pushing fluid to the slave.
04-28-2015, 02:28 PM
#9
Race Director
On my 96 LT4, I thought I had bent the clutch release fork. When I started pulling things apart, I saw that the locking screw assy for the pivot ball had come loose and allowed the ball to start unscrewing and had moved out so much that the fork was starting to rub on the back of the pressure plate when I depressed the clutch to start the car!
Had to take the exhaust, C-beam, drive shaft & transmission out to finally see what the problem was.
Had to take the exhaust, C-beam, drive shaft & transmission out to finally see what the problem was.
03-08-2016, 12:16 AM
#11
Pro
Thread Starter
It's been almost a year since I asked for your help.
I haven't got time to finish investigating and working on my car until couple months ago. Since then I was able to dig little deeper into this problem and actually fix it.
First thing I did was to purchase and install new slave cylinder and like I expected that didn't work.
The next thing was to remove the transmission and get to the clutch. Sure enough the whole thing was rusted together. After removing and cleaning it everything started working just fine. I end up installing new slave cylinder. The clutch was in great shape as it only has maybe 2k miles on it and it's $1,000 McLeod double disk. Good cleaning from all the rust it's all that was needed.
Again thank you for all your help and suggestions. I really enjoy this forum!
I haven't got time to finish investigating and working on my car until couple months ago. Since then I was able to dig little deeper into this problem and actually fix it.
First thing I did was to purchase and install new slave cylinder and like I expected that didn't work.
The next thing was to remove the transmission and get to the clutch. Sure enough the whole thing was rusted together. After removing and cleaning it everything started working just fine. I end up installing new slave cylinder. The clutch was in great shape as it only has maybe 2k miles on it and it's $1,000 McLeod double disk. Good cleaning from all the rust it's all that was needed.
Again thank you for all your help and suggestions. I really enjoy this forum!