friggin clutch

[jwalterus]

well, last spring my clutch MC died a spectacular death (when the reservoir blows off the MC it makes one heck of a mess), replaced it and had crappy clutch all summer, it was useable but I had resigned myself to the fact that it was going to suck

then the slave dies last week, replaced that, spent a couple hours getting it to bleed, got crappier clutch than before, and no matter how many different ways I try to bleed the friggin thing, it won't work properly, it's currently sitting on the vacuum pump drawing 24 inches/hg vacuum (where it's been for an hour) on the reservoir

been having to start in gear, the stinkin thing rides the clutch hard enough right now it idles at 500 when holding the brake in gear

I'm about ready to go either yank a mechanical clutch assembly off of a 70's truck in the junkyard, or pull a c-6 out of an IDI in there

 

[franklin2]

Get someone to watch the firewall while you push the clutch. How much does it move? It can get so bad it ruins your master because of the angles when the firewall breaks.

 

[lotzagoodstuff]

Did you have the slave cylinder with the little two winged thingy on it? If you didn't have that when you installed it, it's pretty tough to bleed the system when you replaced the slave. There are lots of horror stories about bleeding a clutch on a ZF5, hang in there, and get somebody to help you as two eyes/hands are always a help when you are trying to look at two parts of any system.

 

[wildman7798]

I am bringing this up only because it was an odd deal and you never know. We had an 87 F250 w/300 L6 and 5 spd. The clutch master cylinder went out. Bought a new one, put it on, bled fine, worked fine for about 6 months. The pedal started getting lower and lower and harder to shift as weeks went on. Looked underneath and saw a drop or 2 of fluid on the inspection cover so I assumed the slave/release bearing was failing. Went to check the M/C fluid and I noticed it had what I thought was a screen or filter screen in the resivoir like you see on imports at times. Added fluid but it didn't drain out of the screen into the resevoir So I grab the screen and pull it out, turns out it was a rubber liner, or bladder with no drain hole in it and it was pretty snug to filler neck. Took it out, filled the resevoir up with fluid and the clutch worked fine. Sold the truck about 3 months later but the new owner has never said anything about clutch issues. I have no idea what the liner was for and sure didn't notice it on the install but it sure caused problems. Never seen one before or since. Just thought I'd throw this out there, you never know.

 

[franklin2]

I am bringing this up only because it was an odd deal and you never know. We had an 87 F250 w/300 L6 and 5 spd. The clutch master cylinder went out. Bought a new one, put it on, bled fine, worked fine for about 6 months. The pedal started getting lower and lower and harder to shift as weeks went on. Looked underneath and saw a drop or 2 of fluid on the inspection cover so I assumed the slave/release bearing was failing. Went to check the M/C fluid and I noticed it had what I thought was a screen or filter screen in the resivoir like you see on imports at times. Added fluid but it didn't drain out of the screen into the resevoir So I grab the screen and pull it out, turns out it was a rubber liner, or bladder with no drain hole in it and it was pretty snug to filler neck. Took it out, filled the resevoir up with fluid and the clutch worked fine. Sold the truck about 3 months later but the new owner has never said anything about clutch issues. I have no idea what the liner was for and sure didn't notice it on the install but it sure caused problems. Never seen one before or since. Just thought I'd throw this out there, you never know.

I have had that happen to me a couple of times. You pull the cap off, pour the fluid in the master and think you are good. Come to find out that rubber thing is in the top of the reservoir with no fluid getting down into the workings of the master. The rubber thing is simply a bladder that fits in the top of the master cylinder cap, much like the bladder that fits into the cap of the brake master. It get's stuck on the reservoir and comes out of the cap. It's purpose is also like the one on the brake master cylinder, it lets the system "breath" or expand and contract, without letting outside air and moisture get into contact with the brake fluid.

 

[wildman7798]

I have had that happen to me a couple of times. You pull the cap off, pour the fluid in the master and think you are good. Come to find out that rubber thing is in the top of the reservoir with no fluid getting down into the workings of the master. The rubber thing is simply a bladder that fits in the top of the master cylinder cap, much like the bladder that fits into the cap of the brake master. It get's stuck on the reservoir and comes out of the cap. It's purpose is also like the one on the brake master cylinder, it lets the system "breath" or expand and contract, without letting outside air and moisture get into contact with the brake fluid.

lol..... never even considered that would be it. There is more than one F250 in the world that doesn't have one anymore, good info to know. They obviously didn't have a very good retention procedure to hold it to the cap.

 

[racin460]

Pump it up and pin it to the floor over night, next day it should be better.