'87 clutch hydraulics
Thread Starter
Cruising
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 10
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From: San Antonio TX
'87 clutch hydraulics
I had a slow leak in my slave cylinder, so I had my local garage replace it. Now they say no matter how they try bleeding it, it still gets more air inside, to the point that although you can pump the clutch to get pressure, it only lasts for a few seconds.
They're saying that it looks like it's bypassing the master cylinder somehow, and I need to replace that too. I was having zero problems of this nature before. I'm no mechanic, but it seems to me that if the master cylinder was fine before they started working on it, and it's broken now, then something they did must have broken it. They say there's no way their tech could have busted the master switching out the slave.
Any thoughts from someone more knowledgable?
-Jonathan
They're saying that it looks like it's bypassing the master cylinder somehow, and I need to replace that too. I was having zero problems of this nature before. I'm no mechanic, but it seems to me that if the master cylinder was fine before they started working on it, and it's broken now, then something they did must have broken it. They say there's no way their tech could have busted the master switching out the slave.
Any thoughts from someone more knowledgable?
-Jonathan
Safety Car
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 4,286
Likes: 4
From: Guam
Re: '87 clutch hydraulics (nobodyunknown)
Honestly, I don't think that they got all the air out. They need to remove the slave cylinder and leave it attached to the line. Hold it up as high as you can with the bleeder at the highest point possible. Now bleed it the regular way. This usually works real well. Somehow, bleeding it in the car does not suffice. I have bled alot of problem jobs exactly like this with great results. :cheers:
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 54,124
Likes: 30
From: Cincinnati, Oh USA
Re: '87 clutch hydraulics (jbellis)
My mechanic bled the holy hockey sticks out of the new master/slave on my 87 and held the slave up, went through a quart of brake fluid, jacked the front end up, power bled, prayed, bowed to the East and with a mushy pedal, gave it back to me. It was mushy for 4 days, then on the 5th day I get in to go to work and the pedal is hard. The engineer that designed that system needs to be burned at the stake. :smash:
Pro
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 595
Likes: 9
Re: '87 clutch hydraulics (jfb)
I have a 500cc syringe and a bunch of tubing/fittings that I use to fill stuff like this from the bottom up, it's great if you can get under the car. I always had problems with this set-up with my (RIP) 4+3, I'm hoping to have better luck with the ZF6 set-up, since it's all fresh and new parts as part of my conversion.
If you want to end it once and for all, get yourself the syringe, you could probably use a pressure bleeder from a tool supplier as well. Then get a new master cylinder, flush out the line and slave. Put it all together and crack the bleeder screw. Fill the syringe and tap all the air out of it. Connect a hose from the bleeder to the syringe and fill it nice and slow from the bottom up. Soon as it's coming up through the master cyl., tighten the bleeder up and top off the resevoir. I just did it last weekend, and got the firm pedal right away. I used DOT 5 silicone fluid, because I'm thinking I was having moisture problems.
I also did the brakes on my motorcycle in the same outing. So many projects, so little time....
If you want to end it once and for all, get yourself the syringe, you could probably use a pressure bleeder from a tool supplier as well. Then get a new master cylinder, flush out the line and slave. Put it all together and crack the bleeder screw. Fill the syringe and tap all the air out of it. Connect a hose from the bleeder to the syringe and fill it nice and slow from the bottom up. Soon as it's coming up through the master cyl., tighten the bleeder up and top off the resevoir. I just did it last weekend, and got the firm pedal right away. I used DOT 5 silicone fluid, because I'm thinking I was having moisture problems.
I also did the brakes on my motorcycle in the same outing. So many projects, so little time....
