well well well, if timing wasn't bad enough I was leaving a night class about 45 min ago when I took a turn and heard a bang. I thought I broke my clutch pedal because it was gone. I turn on the light, and the clutch pedal was sunken to the ground. I tried to pull it up but it's like a line burst or something. Now I've had my original slave cylinder die before but there aren't too many miles on this current one.

The most fun (sarcasm) part was driving home. I was in 2nd gear with no clutch and limped the car about 25 miles home thru back country roads and a pretty major state road, trying to avoid stops. Fortunately this time of night traffic is pretty light and I hit most all green lights. Once, I did have to stop, so I pulled the car out of gear, and used the brakes as usual. Then, shut the car off to get it back into gear and started it and kept on going.

Once I got home, I popped the hood and looked under the car for evidence of a ruptured slave cylinder (happened the first time). Nope, fluid was still in the resevoir and nothing that indicated a ruptured slave.

Worst part, is I just got an alignment done last week that took 2 hours and a fairly hefty chunk of change. If I have to drop the rear cradle to tear into the driveline again, thats more $ down the drain. Damn, this will be the third time I've had to tear into the driveline!

OK it's off to the garage, hopefully it's something really easy like a bolt falling off the master cylinder (yeah if my luck was that good).... Guess I'll be taking the motorcycle to work (vette's my only car).

EDIT, car is fixed, see post 6

 

I'll give you $4,500 for it right now no questions asked. Deal? Seriously thats a bummer, hope it is a quick easy fix for ya.

 

good luck. sucks but once you get it fixed you know the car will win you over again no matter how mad you are right now.

 

Sorry to hear that. I too have had clutch master/slave cylinder problems lately. It really sucks. I was able to pry the pedal up off the floor and gently drive it home though. I changed the fluid from DOT3 to DOT4 and it seems to have helped a lot.

 

I hope it is something simple like the master cylinder bolt. Those are only about $3,500 installed. It's a very special bolt. Seriously, sorry to hear about you car. It sounds like you did everything right in getting it home safe though. I probably wouldn't have thought to turn off the engine. I would have just crammed it into gear and probably torn the transmission out. Good thinking on your part.

Michael in KC

 

OK here's an update. My car is fixed

Turns out- it was pretty easy. The damn master cylinder must have rotated itself loose and simply popped itself out of the firewall. The clutch also has that "helper" spring that preloads the pedal for less effort. I REMOVED it this time. The clutch pedal definately feels differnet with it removed, it takes more effort but there's no freeplay anymore.

Sooo, I put the damn master cylinder back on- and this time used vice grips to exert just enough force to rotate it to "lock" in place. You can see the "locking" action from inside the car. Took her out for a test drive, did a smokey burnout with my line lock and so far so good

MAJOR sigh of relief.

 

I bet you feel so much better now.
Glad it didn't cost you a ton.

 

sorry to hear about you're problems but ain't vettes fun

 

Great news. Glad you found such a simple fix to the problem

 

Yeah that's for sure! I was certain I would have to pull apart the driveline again That job is a royal PITA.

It was pretty funny trying to get the car onto jackstands last night- usually I drive the car onto some wood ramps to give it enough clearance. Without a functional clutch, this is near next to impossible to do I wound up pushing the car onto some scrap plywood to raise the car just enough, that I could slip a jack & puck under the side of the car. Then remove the front L wheel and access the clutch master cylinder.

 

Great you have the car back up and running, think if the clucth was toast you would have been pushing your car on that scrap plywood, ask me how I know that

 

Great to see you've got the vette fixed! It's nice to get a break hey?

 

Sure glad it was nothing serious.