Clutch problem

[vanilla gorilla]

Anyways I am having some problems with my clutch. I know its not the clutch itself because its brand new with like 5k miles on it.

So the problem is that the engagement point of the clutch is when the pedal is completly released. I literally have to take my foot completly off the pedal for the car to move. Its also not fully engaging. I drove the car yesterday for the first time in a while, to do some tuning and noticed the clutch immediatly so I turned around and parked it, because I dont want to burn up the clutch.

I thought about bleeding the clutch, but I know thats not the problem because I've had to do that before so I know what air in the line would feel like. The problem is in the hydraulic system and I am leaning towards the slave cylinder, maybe with the car sitting up for so long without being driven caused the seals to go out? (if the slave cylinder even has seals)

What do y'all think?

[SilvrEclipse]

Try bleeding the clutch and see if that helps. The car is fine to drive but dont let the clutch slip. If it starts to slip stop driving it or baby it home if it slips only under hard acceleration.

How is the Jaw working?? Did you ever get the unit calibrated right?

[vanilla gorilla]

Yeah I'm going to go ahead and bleed it to see what happens but I'm really leaning towards the slave cylinder.

JAW is working, and semi-calibrated, I dont remember what value I used but it seems to be pretty close. I was planning on messing with it some yesterday but I dont want to drive or warp on the car in its condition.

This is why I hate letting a car sit up for long periods of time. Crap always tears up, I gaurantee if I would have been driving the car on a semi regular basis, that the clutch wouldnt have messed up. Also my alignment seems to be out of wack....stupid car.

[SilvrEclipse]

Well hope you get it fixed soon. I would like to see some graphs of your WB logs to see how your car runs before you tune it.

Also just play around with the values some and you should be able to get it pretty accurate.

[vanilla gorilla]

Yeah, I will do some logs eventually. I still need to solder in the RPM input to the jaw

[vanilla gorilla]

Been doing alot of pondering on the clutch situation. Messed around with it today some. The DOT3 fluid in the hydraulic system is no longer clear like it should be, but dirty brown/black colored. Theres alot of super small pieces of rubber in the reservoir. Obviously the seals from the slave cylinder and/or master cylinder have broken down and are now crap. A new slave and master cylinder will be in tomorrow and I'll go ahead and throw them in there and flush the system, add some new fluid, bleed it, and be good to go.

[Blackcrow64]

Have you tried adjusting the nut on the clutch pedal on the inside of the car? Sometimes it just need to be turned a little bit to fix that problem. I would try that before replacing both cylinders.

[vanilla gorilla]

I havent adjusted it. I know it wont help anything in my situation. Its my slave cylinder 4 sure, but I'm going to replace the master while I'm at it, to have the complete fresh setup.

[SilvrEclipse]

Good luck on replacing everything. I bet that master cylinder is going to be a pain to change out.

[vanilla gorilla]

Actually its already out! The only thing thats holding it on the car is the hydraulic hard line, started pouring rain today before I could break the nut loose. I got the slave cylinder completly off also. So tomorrow when I leave school (only like a week left of high school for me!) my home boy will already be at the house with my parts and we will knock it out real quick like.

Got one other thing left to do after that....
It will involve a grinder with a cut off wheel and some of the exterior sheet metal on my car...but thats another project.

[SilvrEclipse]

You should have changed out the hydrolic line to a SS one. Also take out the clutch fluid restrictor in the slave cylinder.

[kjewer1]

Any problems related to clutch hydraulics (leaks, seals, air in system, etc) result in a low pedal, the opposite of your problem. If changing those parts fixes it, it was by accident. The most likely cause is the adjustment rod being too far out, possibly compounded by the one way valve function in the master (pedal pump up).

[vanilla gorilla]

I replaced both the slave cylinder and the master today, cleaned all the lines and put in new fluid. Yes the problem is now fixed. The slave was definatly worn out, but I knew that before I changed it, because I layed up under the car and played with it the other day.

I also like the piece of mind of knowing that the entire clutching system is now new.

The clutch functions awesome now, well worth the $85 I spent in it today.

Kevin: Yeah, I read about pedal pump up the other day on RRE's website.