Clutch Hydraulic Issue
Thread Starter
Heel & Toe
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
From: Tallahassee FL
Clutch Hydraulic Issue
Lost the clutch completely the other day. In other words the pressure plate is always engaged. Start the car in gear and the starter will move the car forward, out of gear engine starts fine. I can not put the car in gear while the engine is moving. Clutch pedal is pretty much not there, in other words it goes to the floor with little or no resistance. Clutch hydraulic fluid is black. Visual inspection of the installed master cylinder provides no clues, externally it looks fine. BTW no evidence of fluid leaks.
OK so I've lost hydraulic pressure completely so I'm guessing either the master or the slave. Question is how do I know which one is the problem. Obviously replacing the master cylinder is a much easier proposition and I was thinking of removing it from the system, but frankly would wonder how I could tell if it was bad short of replacing it.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Mark.
OK so I've lost hydraulic pressure completely so I'm guessing either the master or the slave. Question is how do I know which one is the problem. Obviously replacing the master cylinder is a much easier proposition and I was thinking of removing it from the system, but frankly would wonder how I could tell if it was bad short of replacing it.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Mark.
Thread Starter
Heel & Toe
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
From: Tallahassee FL
Started to think about this a little more and pulled my son off of his neverendinq quest to make a perfect "online world", much to his dismay I might add, and had him slowly depress the pedal while I had the cap off of the resevoir. I do see some circulation so I'm guessing the master is OK. I also did the maintenance procedure replacing the fluid until it was clear. Still can't shift into gear with the engine running.
Really looking forward to this install. Up front I've got long tubes that will have to come off and as I undersand it I have to drop the transaxle to get the torque tube off. Yah I can't wait.
Really looking forward to this install. Up front I've got long tubes that will have to come off and as I undersand it I have to drop the transaxle to get the torque tube off. Yah I can't wait.
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 1999
Posts: 22,025
Likes: 192
From: At the beach in little Rhody
I just put in a clutch myself, not a lot of fun but relatively straight forward. About the only thing you can do is bench check the master and hope it is the cause, otherwise it is likely the slave and you might as well put in a clutch if that is the case as the level of effort to get to it wouldn't justify leaving it.
One other thought, many years ago I had one of the springs in the clutch disc come out and basically lock the disc to the flywheel. Symptoms were exactly as you describe. When this occurred, had you just spun it up to a high RPM? That's what I had done and I think the spring came out because of the centrifugal force and just locked itself in place.
One other thought, many years ago I had one of the springs in the clutch disc come out and basically lock the disc to the flywheel. Symptoms were exactly as you describe. When this occurred, had you just spun it up to a high RPM? That's what I had done and I think the spring came out because of the centrifugal force and just locked itself in place.
