clutch slave cylinder

[1992stealth]

I just bought a new slave cylinder for my 1992 Dodge Stealth (base coupe, 5 spd. manual) and i have never replaced one before. I have done all the work on my vehicles (1983 Pontiac Firebird, 1989 Toyota Corolla, and now my Dodge) anad this is the first manual that i have owned. If anyone haas any tips on how to make this a little easier and smoother going, please let me know.

Thanks

[jason_bet]

Just make sure you have extensions.. or its a pain!! good luck..

Jason

[Twizted_3KGT]

Remove the intake and you should have access to it. If that's not enough room take out the battery, tray, and wiper resevoir. I usually have to use a wrench to get the bottom bolt out...might be able to get at it with a socket and a swivel. Make sure you don't bend the metal line going to it, and bleed it over and over until you are 200% sure there's no air in the lines when you're done.

Pretty much all the tips I can think of.

[1992stealth]

well i replaced the slave cylinder last night. i removed the battery and the air system, took the old cylinder out and compared it to the new one. The rod was bent pretty bad and realized that i was looking for more than one problem. i looked at the clutch fork and realized that its quite sloppy. So now im looking at replacing that too. Weavers in my town has a clutch release arm kit so im going to take a look at it tonight to see if its what i need. hopefully it is cause that will only cost me $40 where the dealer will charge me $100. Any other ideas of what else is wrong...let me know.

[Twizted_3KGT]

Woah, the slave cylinder rod was bent? What happened before the car went down for repairs? Sounds like you have bigger problems. The clutch fork will have some play in it when there's no pressure on it from the slave cylinder, doesn't mean it's bad necessarily.

[1992stealth]

i was leaving my boyfriends house to go home and turned around to go back. i started downshifting and when i got to the stop sign i went to push in the clutch to go into 1st gear and it was really hard, there was a lot of pressure built up. i kept trying to push the clutch in and it finally did. i went to take off and realized that i wasnt goin anywhere. i gave it a lot of gas and it started going but then really hopped as it started going, i was able to shift into 2nd gear but it was difficult. i got to his house which was only about 5 blocks from the stop signand turned the car off. i told him to come to the caar and we woul go for a ride but then the cara wouldnt even start. so i had it towed to my house and thats where its been sitting ever since. i fixed the slave cylinder and now there's the problem with the clutch fork or the bearing. the fork isn't sitting where it should be. So im going to have someone tow it to a car shop and have them look at it. I have never done anything with a transmission and thats not something that i would want to mess up.

[1992stealth]

im pretty sure that the throw out bearing is fine. there were no unusual noises before it happened. the fork will sit down and move back and forth like it should but then it jumps up and you can move it freely. it seems to me that its broken somewhere or that it became unaligned with the bearing. Any ideas of what happened or what else may be wrong?

[Twizted_3KGT]

Yeah it sounds like you're going to need a clutch to me. I've seen this alot, when a clutch gets old a spring will break out of the clutch disc and jam inbetween the pressure plate and the disc making it impossible to disengage the clutch. This is probably why you couldn't push the clutch pedal in and why it wouldn't go into gear. Now since you continued forcing the pedal down, your slave cylinder rod bent and you may have damaged the clutch fork or fulcrum (knob-like base it pivots on). Only thing to do is to drop the transmission and see what's really going on in there.

As for why it wouldn't start, hopefully it was just because you couldn't push the clutch pedal down far enough to engage the neutral safety switch (needed to start the car). Otherwise I can't imagine anything, other than catostrophic failure of everything in the transmission bellhousing somehow jamming so the crank can't spin, that would cause the engine to not start. Unless the engine was cranking and wouldn't start?

On a side note, bravo on being a girl working on her own car. You're the 3rd one here in the last two weeks.

[1992stealth]

well when it first happened the car wouldnt start. but las weekend i went out and it started right up. i had the e-brake pulled and turned the car off, put it in 1st gear and it just wanted to go. but if you turn it on in nuetral and try to go into first it will just grind. im hoping i wont need a new transmission or clutch. i dont have that kind of money. Any other ideas?

[Twizted_3KGT]

Originally Posted by 1992stealth

well when it first happened the car wouldnt start. but las weekend i went out and it started right up. i had the e-brake pulled and turned the car off, put it in 1st gear and it just wanted to go. but if you turn it on in nuetral and try to go into first it will just grind. im hoping i wont need a new transmission or clutch. i dont have that kind of money. Any other ideas?

Yeah that's definitely your clutch as I described it. Don't keep trying to grind it into a gear with it on and you won't have to replace the transmission. As long as you can put it into all the gears smoothly with the engine OFF your transmssion should be fine. The transmission's on these cars, especially the non-turbos, are easy to drop. If you don't have the $5-600 for a shop to do it, I think you could do it yourself. Aside from the preffered method of bench pressing it out and in by hand, but you could just use a floor jack. You can't really mess anything up, as long as you don't let it drop.

[1992stealth]

just replaced the clutch and now its back to normal