Originally Posted by chuckster

After tons of speculation on Slave and how much fluid it contains and does it leach black from the rubber...

I have taken my old slave apart to prove once and for all the Slave contains VERY little fluid at all and does leach black from the rubber.

Ok here is a shot of the full slave.


Here is the Slave disassembled without the throwout bearing but just the Plastic plunger that rests on top of the thick rubber piston that the fluid pushes on. The inside edge of the plastic piston is all that makes contact with the rubber piston in the picture below.


Understand that this setup is the reverse of what one would expect. A hard aluminum piston with a rubber seal around it. In this case the piston IS the rubber seal. Here is the seal pulled up


Here is proof that the black leaching is from the piston.


Here a shot of the size of the hole that the fluid enters. Its the same on both sides and it opens to a small channel under the rubber piston


Here is a pice of wire showing the entry point of the fluid.


Now for the question, how much fluid does the slave hold? EXACTLY 2 TABLESPOONS. Yes I used wifeys cooking measuring spoon.
I filled the whole thing up with water and plugged the holes.


I poured it out into a plastic dixie cup..to further demonstrate how little there is.


There you have it.. There is no more magic in the slave...the curtain has been pulled aside...

Originally Posted by Joe_G

You all might like this thread.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...cs-inside.html

Originally Posted by PRE-Z06

Something else that I don't think was mentioned being that was a C5 slave and GM did add a rubber sleeve to the new C6 slave to try and keep the fluid cleaner which I think helps, but only to a certain extent. Something I've noticed from my experience of running 10 different clutches and 5 different kinds of friction is my fluid hardly ever discolors running a different compound friction material other than stock organic disc that dusts the most.

Originally Posted by Joe_G

I know from personal experience that fresh fluid fixes this. No question about it. And it only seems to happen after a hard launch with some clutch slippage and attendant heat, or after a high rpm run on a high HP car with perhaps a marginal clamping force clutch that is slipping imperceptably to the driver but none the less is slipping and causing the heat.

But it just seems odd to me that boiling the fluid causes the opposite of what happens when you boil the brake fluid - boil brake fluid, foot to the floor like air in the lines and no brakes. The pedal comes up...but now that I think of it, a bit slowly. Boil clutch fluid, you'd expect to not be able to disengage the clutch... but you can disengage it, the pedal just doesn't come up after you do so! I'm not an engineer so maybe I'm just an idiot on this. But doesn't that seem odd to you too?

I suppose....thinking while typing here.... that perhaps the PP diaphragm on a high rpm shift DOES push back on the slave, as designed (this makes sense as the clutch is fully engaged when this happens, and not slipping, so the clutch is indeed engaged properly - this contradicts the overcentering theory, which would result in the clutch slipping which it does not when this happens), and the slave, with boiled fluid, compresses the air bubbles instead of moving the fluid back to master as designed. And thus the pedal does not come up. After you physically use your foot to transfer the fluid by pulling up the clutch pedal, it works properly again. I'm sure the cr&p in the fluid trying to pass through that tiny orifice Chuck shows above doesn't help any in the fluid transfer so fresh fluid would help there also.