98C

Hi all,
Long time reader of the site, first post. My car has had a squeaky clutch since I have owned it and I finally got around to lubing the ball part of the slave cylinder where it connects with the fork part of the clutch. Saw the fluid was dirty in the clutch reservoir so I changed it as well. Now I believe my clutch is engaging very close to the floor. How far off the floor should it engage? I would say it is around an inch or less now.

I double checked to make sure that no air was in the slave cylinder by using the bleeder. Is it possible to get air in the master cylinder? If so, how do you bleed that? Or is it all connected? I had cleaned out the reservoir before I changed the fluid but I never bled the system with an empty reservoir. The only thing that might be the problem is that I did not have the bleeder submerged in fluid when changing the line. I still don't see how air could get in since I was pushing fluid out while topping off the reservoir and closing the bleeder each time the pedal came back up. If that isn't the problem, I know I can adjust a part with the clutch pedal to correct it. I have heard you can mess up your master cylinder this way though if you aren't careful.

Any guidance would be helpful, I just wanted to see what everyone on here thinks before trying anything else. I can always reflush the system since I have leftover fluid but I don't really think that it has air in it. Thanks in advance!

crazyhorse2011

When I replaced my master I did my slave as well. So both were new, and both were dry. I bench bled the master, installed everything, and followed the correct bleeding procedure. It's simalar to brakes. You need a second person to pump the pedal and follow your commands. The way I believe I did it was this. Take a rubber hose, connect to slave cylinder bleed valve. Get a jug and fill with some brake fluid and submerge the end of that hose in it. So picture the jug under the tranny, with the hose dipped in it. Have your partner floor the clutch and hold. You crack the bleeder, air and dirty fluid comes out into the jug. Tell partner to release pedal. This causes the reverse effect, and sucks fluid up through the hose back into the slave WITHOUT THE AIR. Close bleeder and repeat. Occasionally you need to close the bleeder and pump a bunch and top off the master reservoir. Then get in the car and get a feel for it. If it doesn't feel right then go back to dipping the hose in the brake fluid and working together again as stated above. It took me like 20 minutes doing it this way and I got my engagement point about 2 inches off the floor, granted it is hard to tell just judging by your foot. It didn't feel like the pedal was "floppy" at the top at full release so I left it be, and it's been fine for 2 months now.

98C

Is it necessary to have the hose submerged in brake fluid? I heard about this but the only jug I had around was gallon sized so I couldn't really fill it up since I had a small amount of brake fluid. I closed the bleeder every time when sucking the fluid into the system so it would squirt it down the hose when open and then suck up the master cylinder fluid when closed. I don't think I got any air into system unless it happened at the top when I cleaned out the reservoir.

Do you think I would be ok adjusting the pedal? I have been driving it around the way it is but if I dont have it fully on the floor, it will grind gears a bit.

crazyhorse2011

The way you were doing it is okay, but the way I described is a little faster and more efficient. I'm not really sure what adjustment you're talking about honestly, I would not **** with that until you try what I am saying. If you're pedal is close to the floor engaging, but acts normal otherwise, and the shift point hasn't moved at all, then your setup is fine, you just need to bleed the system some more. If these symptoms were happening on a brake system I would suggest the same thing (example: brake pedal drops pretty far before brakes grab, feeling like a deadzone - air in lines).

It's simple my man. Go to the gas station, buy a 16oz water from the beer cooler and pick up a jug of DOT3 brake fluid. Drink the water, fill the bottle with brake fluid enough so when you submerge the hose in it it has at least an inch or two of fluid covering the end of the hose, and bleed as I stated above. I actually didn't have any clear rubber tubing laying around so I actually used spare vacuum hose I had laying around from my vacuum gage project. It worked just fine.