Hydraulic clutch wowes

[uncledoug]

95 Rodeo, V6
My clutch pedal went to the floor the other day.
Attempting to diagnose the problem, I began to bleed the clutch system of air, trying to eliminate one possiblity.
I did this a while, but now the pedal will not depress "far enough"(probably 3/4 of the way down) when the bleeder valve is closed in normal operating status. Basically it will not go down enough for the no-engine-start-switch to be tripped, it does not feel right, and the pedal feels a bit spongy, like there is still air in the line.

Any ideas?

The whole thing of the pedal not wanting to go down is what gets me.

-Doug

[uncledoug]

Wow!

Stumped you all!

From some of the prior posts on threads similar to my problem, several things could be in play.
But the peddal not wanting to depress is nowhere to be found.
I'll be talking to the local mechanic tomorrow.

Have a good weekend!

[uncledoug]

I pulled the slave cyclinder this morning.

Question: What provides the "return spring" for the slave cylinder?
The pressure from the clutch fork/arm?

I also removed the inspection plates from the bell housing. I can move the clutch arm/fork with my fingers. Both forward and backward, but it seems to be pivioting correctly. Nothing seems to be loose or lying in the bottom of the bell housing.

With the slave cylinder out, I can get the peddal to go down enough to start the car. No wierd sounds at all.

Am I totally screwed?

[rodeo02]

Doug, I believe the return spring on the clutch pedal assembly is what gives it the 'return'. It sounds to me as if your slave cylinder is bad, part of it's internals may have come loose, causing the piston to jamb in the bore, not allowing for full range of motion. That's my guess!
G/luck
Joel

[uncledoug]

Originally Posted by rodeo02

Doug, I believe the return spring on the clutch pedal assembly is what gives it the 'return'. It sounds to me as if your slave cylinder is bad, part of it's internals may have come loose, causing the piston to jamb in the bore, not allowing for full range of motion. That's my guess!
G/luck
Joel

Joel,

Thanks for the response!
I was beginning to think this was the case, but...

Since I removed the slave without removing the hydraulic line, I decided to perform an experiment.
Press on the slave pushrod(pushing it into the cylinder), there is a "springy" resistance to me pushing the rod in. But I can get it to push in.
Press on the clutch peddal the rod wants to push out, like it should. So I believe there is no binding.
But the spring may be dead, if it's purpose is to retract the slave pushrod back into the cylinder.
However, if there is no back pressure provided by the clutch activation arm in the bell housing, the slave push rod would end up falling out of place when the clutch pedal was released, right?

I guess I'm trying to eliminate the clutch components in the bell housing as a factor.

[uncledoug]

There was a similar porblem posted here about 1 year ago.
I can't e-mail the poster. They have e-mail blocking checked in their account set-up.

I REALY do not want to have to drop the tranny if at all possible.