so my clutch took a dump on me a couple months ago due to a leaking master cylinder. so i replaced my clutch with an exedy stage 1 and PP and also replaced the master cylinder. after the install i lost pedal pressure so i bled the **** out of it all night and gravity bled it as well but i still had air trapped in the lines. so i took the slave cylinder off and bench bled it and put it back on. this time the car would go in gear but it was still a little tough to go in. so then i adjusted the MC rod in for some more pedal pressure and the clutch felt like a hot knife in butter! so everything is all good!
well last weekend as i was installing my new header i had to remove the slave cylinder once again for space. well when i went to put it back on the rod was very stiff and wouldnt budge at all. at this time im pissed so i press it as hard as i can and bust the fukcing boot and fluid shoots out! so i go to the late night vatozone to get a new one, put it on bleed it and it works like butter again; up until yesteday when the damn thing started getting hard to go into first and second again! so i tried adjusting the MC rod in and that works only for one trip cause when i get to my destination and turn the car off, when i go to take off again its hard to go in gear again so once again i adjusted the rod and it works for one more trip! im tired of having to do this please someone tell me what is wrong with the damn thing. im sorry for the long story and ranting but i really need some help im stumped!


Modified by polishedturd at 8:31 AM 1/30/2008

 

anyone????

 

bump still looking for logical solutions/answers

 

44 views and no one has a suggestion. i know im not the only one that has had/seen this problem before! someone help me out please

 

52 views now and i will keep bumping this thread because i am bored at work and desperatly need some advice..........................

 

62 views

 

u have a leak somewhere. thats the only way u will be losing press.. and that rod only adjusts so far. sooner or later u will run out of threads on it. also do u put the lock nut back on when u adjust? if not it may be turning back to where it was . check everything for fluid leakage.. if u took the slave off and the rod somehow pushed out too far it could have blown the seal again.. u may not see fluid but it may suck air.

 

thank you so much for your reply
but yes i always tighten the lock nut back after adjustment and the slave cylinder is brand new. it was the previous SC that the rod cam out of so i replaced it with this new one. this weekend im going up to a friend of mines shop and we are going to pressure bleed the whole system with some pump he has so hopefully that will do the trick

 

i know the slave is new but didnt u say u took it off to do something after it was replaced? if u did even if it didnt look damaged it still could have been if the rod shifted out a lil too far.. ive seen it happen. also some new parts tend to be bad right out of the box. . but u have a leak somewhere.. or air in the lines

 

nope, i never took it back off after i replaced it with the new one and thats why im stumped. it just started happening out of no where . its almost as if the rod is turning its self back out like you said because if i leave it sitting for a couple hours thats when it does it and i just reach under the dash and turn the rod in and its fine again. and i know that the lock nut is tightened all the way but the rod is still able to turn?. does that make sense?

 

if the rod is turnin then loctite it or something.. if it isnt turning then u still have air in the sys or a leak somewhere.. even copper crush washers can have tiny leaks.. anything can.

 

thanks for your help

 

A couple of comments:
0: I didn't feel like replying earlier because you kept bumping.
1: You shouldn't need to bleed the system for a long time. You either have a leak that is letting air in, or you aren't bleeding it right.
2: You probably blew out the slave cylinder because you either didn't install it back right, or pressed down the clutch pedal with the slave cylinder off the car. Remember how I mentioned that the slave cylinder has a spring that causes the piston to extend out by itself? If you then also pressed the clutch pedal at the same time, well then...
Another possibility is that you went nuts adjusting the MC pushrod. The reason you need a tiny bit of play in the pedal is because the MC needs to retract all the way and open a valve to the reservoir. If you keep extending the pushrod, this valve won't get a chance to open and thus the clutch release fork doesn't get a chance to push the slave cylinder back in.
3. After installing the slave cylinder, you should first make sure that you can BY HAND push it's piston back in, i.e. push the clutch release fork further towards the SC. That insures that the valve in the MC is open.
4. Repeatedly adjusting the MC pushrod is not the proper solution to your problem. If the engagement point keeps moving down and the pedal is getting softer, you have a leak.

 

well thanks for your reply, better late than never
i checked the entire system and there are no leaks anywhere. i even used a reverse bleeder to bleed it back to the MC and had no air bubbles what so ever.
the pedal does not ever get soft and so this is the reason i ruled out a leak and or air getting into the lines in the first place but i checked anyway.

the only thing that i could think of is that the MC rod is some how adjusting itself back in towards the pedal because the lock nut is not "locking". sometimes when i go to turn it i can do it by hand. so im gonna try some loctite and go from there. thanks for your reply/help. and sorry if i came off like a dick before

 

Well, I hope the pushrod was the problem. I'm sorry you blew out a slave cylinder over it. If the pushrod kept getting shorter, you should have noticed more and more free play in the pedal. Anyway, I think you might not be locking down the locknut correctly. You need a thin 12mm wrench in order to grab the inner nut and a regular 12mm wrench to grab the locknut. I think a cheap and crappy wrench will work because the better quality ones are thicker. Or a bike store will have a "cone wrench" or even "offset brake wrench". Once you have the locknut tight against the nut, it should never come out, and you don't need loctite. The rod can still rotate, but it won't change the pushrod length anymore. Good luck

 

well one missed day of work and a banged up thumb later(stupid bitch pin) and i fixed the problem. instead of just doing the clutch job like i have done dozens of times before, for some reason the first time i installed the clutch i read the instuctions and it had said something about the fingers on the PP should be positioned outward away from the fly wheel a bit and so like a dumbass that is what i did instead of aligning the fingers flat. so that being said when it all went back together the throw out bearing was in constant pressure on the PP making the slave cylinder work harder and harder to push the fork and disengage the clutch. thus blowing three SC and adjusting the MC out of whack to compensate(not a good idea). but now its perfect so i cant be happier. thanks for all the help.

 

Not sure how you were able to have the diaphragm fingers stick out too much, as there's only one way to bolt down the pressure plate. But as long as it works now, good for you.

 

its harder to explain/understand on the forum than it is in person but yeah im happier than a *** in a dick tree! thanks for your help