OK....My 86 GXL has 91K on it and everything is original and stock. My clutch pedal feels like it is not attached to anything until I get it half way down, and then it starts to feel like it should when you push it in. Also, When driving home yesterday, I was trying to downshift at a light and it felt like I was trying to powershift. The shifter was VERY hard to get into 4th so I left it in neutral and stopped. When I went to get into 1st it went in easy. I am not much on clutch systems, so I need to know what this could be. I do not know the different symptoms of a bad master vs a bad slave cylinder or any of that. Anyone have any ideas where I should look first? I do not want to get stuck on the road with this. I know that the clutch needs to be replaced soon but that shouldnt cause anything like this.

 

anyone??

 

I do not know the different symptoms of a bad master vs a bad slave cylinder or any of that.


If either fail you will experience the same symptom.

In the four fc's I've owned I have replaced the slave cylinder more than I have the master. Since its hard to test with simplicity one or the other as faulty, I would suggest just getting both. That way you'll have the piece of mind of both being new.

I've also rebuilt them with sealing kits from checker/autozone. But I have to admit that they seem to fail again a month or two later so I wouldn't recomend rebuilding them this way.

And last but not least, you might just simply not have enough fluid or you to need bleed it out, and completely replace the break fluid altogether.

Edit:

Failing clutch hydrolics will display the symptoms you describe.

 

My vote would be to change both the clutch master and slave cylinders. It's pretty easy to do and note that expensive.

 

I just checked and the fluid is almost completely gone. It is almost empty. Gonna put some more in but I want to fix the problem, not just keep throwing fluid in it. What would cause it to go dry like that? The car does not leave puddles anywhere that I have seen.

 

The clutch hydraulic system should (theoretically) never loose fluid. If you're llosing fluid, that means you have a leak. Check all fitting, the rubber hose and both cylinders. It's possible for the master cylider to leak into the passenger compartment, through to fire wall. (My brake master cylinder did that.)

 

If the master leaked into the compartment, the carpet behind the pedals would be wet, right? Think I heard of someone having that happen before.

I checked the visible parts, and found:

--carpet behind pedals is dry and clean.
--no visible leaks from the master itself, the metal line out of it, or the rubber hose that connects on top of the engine block.
--all connections are clean and tight.

 

How about the slave cylinder?

 

where is it? I am not sure where to find the slave. If you let me know I will tell you what it looks like there

 

Just follow the hose.

 

As far as I can reach it is dry. Doesn't seem to be wet anywhere

 

It's gotta be leaking somewhere.

Maybe you should just pull everything out and look at it. It's fairly easy.

The slave cylinder is held in by two bolts that aren't too bad to get to with a socket and an extension.


The other thing you could do would be clean it up really well and then check it in a day or so.

 

If the master or slave were bad, would they leak internally so I couldnt tell from the outside?

 

If they were leaking internally, the fluid level wouldn't go down.

 

so I must be looking at an external leak somewhere. Thanks a lot--you were a big help! I will keep you posted

 

Break fluid is strange stuff.

Sometimes you'll have a leak and well, no distinguishable place to find out where the leak is.

If it comes from the slave cyinder that sits on top of the tranny, that area gets pretty hot, after all it sits right behind the engine, its possible the fluid evaporates faster and thus does not leaving anything behind for you to notice.