Lately I had to replace my pilot bearing and I figured I might as well replace my clutch too. Well when I got every thing back together the pedal had no pressure and the clutch wouldn't release. So I figured it was the hydraulics and I replaced the slave and master cylinder and put the old clutch (which is in fairly good shape)
back in just in case it was a mechanical problem. Well the pedal has more pressure in the first half of the stroke, but the rest of the stroke is the same and the clutch will still not release. When I bleed the hydraulics the fluid will squirt out in the first half of the pedal stroke, but in the rest of the stroke the fluid just moves up and down. Also, after I bleed it the rod that comes out of the slave will slowly creep out and I can't push it back. Today I also found a hole in the hydraulic hose, but no fluid came out of it. I'm trying to get a hose for it right now, but if that doesn't work I don't know what to do next. I also noticied that it shifts into gears a little harder that before.


Please help, It has me really stumped and if I can't fix it myself then I will have to tow it somewhere and I really don't want to do that.

 

how's the throwout bearing and fork?

 

Did you "bench bleed" the clutch master before installing? Essentially what you do is bleed it manually without the slave attached to get most of the air out of the MC itself. Kind of tought to explain...maybe do search on "bench bleeding" to see if a more articulate individual has it written up.

 

Hole in the hose can suck air, not always leaking at the begining, like the man said...bleed, bleed, bleed.

 

I replaced the throw out bearing with a new one and I checked the fork while the transmission was off and it seemed okay. Yes, I did bench bleed the master cylinder. The wierd thing about the hole in the hose is that it is fairly large, but I never see any fluid come out of it.

Thanks for the replys

 

how bout your clutch pedal? did you check the adjustment for it? it could be out of whack...

 

I checked the adjustment too and no matter how I adjusted it it didin't make any difference except more free play at the beginning of the pedal stroke. I pretty sure it is not mechanical, because the car runs just like normal when everything is together and makes no noises from the clutch area.

 

If there is a large hole in the hose, and fluid is not coming out of it when you press the pedal down, then that narrows it down to either the master cylinder or the pedal linkage. If the pedal feels like its moving correctly then its most likely the ms.

Picture the operation of the plunger in the master cylinder. As it is pushed in by the pedal linkage it should be pushing fluid down the line to the slave cylinder.

Now picture that plunger with a bad or missing seal. The plunger moves in, but the fluid just goes past the seal rather than being forced down the line to the slave. I could be wrong of course (happened once when I was five), but that's what I'm picturing from the description provided. Hope this helps...

 

I have replaced the master cylinder and the slave cylinder with a new one so I don't think it is that. The pedal feels like it has the same amount of pressure for the first half of the stroke then it starts to lose pressure. I'm not sure at what it might be.

 

and u dont' think its possible maybe u got a bad master or slave cylinder?

 

I guess i could have gotten a bad one, can I check the master cylinder without taking it off the car? It moves the Clutch fork it just seems like it's not moving it far enough.

 

Either your your MC or SC is bad or your sucking air somewhere. Then again mine did that also when the pilot brearing went out.

 

Now wait a minute here! This just ain't adding up right...

1. You've got this huge hole in the hose, but no fluid is coming out of it.
2. "It moves the Clutch fork it just seems like it's not moving it far enough".

WTF? Either you don't really have a hole in the hose, or the clutch fork is not moving, or you are shooting fluid all over the place. What you have described does not add up...

 

There is a hole in the hose, but I'm not sure if it goes all the way through, it feels like there is still some hose left before it breaks through. I measured how far the fork moves and it is only moving 1/2 inch do you guys know how far the fork is supposed to move. Brianhsval, you said yours did the same thing and there was air in the lines, where were you leaking air at?

 

It seriously sounds like you didn't bleed it properly man... the 1/2" it's moving it down is because it is sealed, but because you have air in there you're compressing the air, but not so much air that you don't move the fork at all... sounds like some got back in before you closed the valve. Try bleeding it again with a friend... or order some speedbleeders, man those things are great.

Anyway, make you sure close the valve while the pedal is held down, don't let it back up, even if you have the hose hooked up to it to not let air back in... the threads can sometimes leak a little air in, so it's safer to just keep the pedal pressed down and close it.

--Gary

 

I've had problems with the clutch plate not sliding properly on the spline, either because of no lube, or because of poorly rebuilt clutchplate. So I always use OEM plates, and maybe the whole clutch, now. 2 years ago I had my mechanic put a new clutch in the 85 and had that problem, but eventually it went away as the clutch wore. I think he ordered a cheap clutch on me (I got rid of the guy coz he did that to me on brakes - dumb sh*t - I got 4 cars for him to work on and he kissed it off with a dumb trick like that).

You never know what the state of that broached hole is in a clutch plate so get a new plate. I don't think rebuilders do anything, even mike it to see if it's in spec.

B

 

I've put the old clutch back in and it still won't release. Bob the Normal, I have been bleeding it the way you said to, but I got one of the speedbleeders, so I will try that.

 

The only other problem I've had is getting the slave cylinder pushrod seated properly in the fork actuator.

What I did when I had problems disengaging was to warm the engine up, stop it, engage first gear, start the car in gear and drive around the block a few times. Seemed to solve the problem, whatever it was. You can actually drive almost anywhere this way, tho it helps if you used to drive old farm tractors lacking synchromesh.

B

 

I tried bleeding ii and it didn't help, so I guess I'm just going to have to take it to a mechanic.

Thanks for the help!

 

We must be missing something obvious here: it shouldn't be necessary to change the clutch. My guess is hydraulics. One time I had a clutch that kept losing fluid through that short flexhose against the firewall, but it didn't show anywhere. One would expect hydraulic stains but there were none. So now I just routinely replace that hose when I do anything on the clutch.

B

 

Well that is the hose that has the hole in it, that I never see any fluid come out. I tried to find one at autozone and O'reilly's, but niether of the stores could even order the hose, where did you get yours from?

 

I did my pilot bearing a couple weeks ago and put a new clutch kit in too, but then had trouble with the bleed. I repeated the bleeding a few times, having a helper pump the peddle while I cracked the bleeder valve, but I just couldn't get the air out. It was completely weird, I've never had problems like that with brakes. Finally I borrowed my neighbor's vacuum bleeder, hooked it up, pulled a big vacuum and then sucked almost all the fluid in the master cylinder through the lines in one good blast, stopping of course before I sucked the master dry. Then I repeated this two times. I used some brake fluid, but I ended up with a good bleed and a real nice clutch. Problem fixed.

 

I got my brake hose from Mazdatrix: they're pretty fast and it's about $10-15. I bet that solves your problem. Of course you've still gotta bleed properly. I'm surprised your local auto store doesn't have them at the warehouse.

I just bought a bunch of brake parts for my 85GSL from rockauto.com, including rear calipers and rotors, and I saved about 30% over anyone else and they came pronto (couple days).

Well, lets see, new rear brakes on the 85 and the 83, now I just gotta replace the starter on the 85SE and apply the water seal fix and then I can mend the exhaust on the REPU. That'll keep me off the streets.

B

 

One thing that can happen just like on brakes is the hose collapse inside and cause a restriction in the fluid flow.

 

I'm about to replace my MC and SC today. Just a thought, and I've seen this done....... Is the clutch disc in the right way? I know some cars can have it installed either way, but the wrong way won't disengage the clutch. Just something else to throw out there. The disc should be marked "flywheel side" somewhere near the center of the clutch.