Clutch issue

[cjlloyd81]

About a week ago my tranny started getting harder and harder to get into/out of gear (i.e shifting, or going into reverse after coming to a stop). No leaks from the master cylinder, tho fluid level was low so I topped it off (didn't have time to diagnose it at the time).

When in gear the truck pulls hard with no slipping so the clutch itself is good, and being that there's no leakage from the master cylinder I'm wanting to condemn the slave. I'm gonna get under the truck in the morning and look for telltale signs down there.

If it ends up being the slave what advice do yall have on bleeding/installing one? The only manual vehicles I've driven have had linkage clutches so this whole hydraulic thing is a new area for me and I'd rather ask for advice before I beat my head off the driveway trying to figure it out on my own

Thanks everyone!

-Chris

[80SPORT]

Replace both master and slave.....bleed assembly before installing

It will be good for another 25 years.

[silverbear]

While you are inspecting the slave cylinder take a look at the divet where the cylinder rod pushes against the clutch fork. I was having an issue with my clutch not disengaging between gears. Due to years of build up I didn't notice my clutch fork had a hole in it, so the rod was pushing through instead of disengaging. I ended up having to drop my trans to fix everything. Hopefully you will have better luck.

[cjlloyd81]

Got the old master n slaves out. New ones in tho my pedal pusher just bailed on me. Grrr....

The fork looks great... greasy (not anymore) but solid. The old slave I could push with no effort at all. And it was leaking like a civ.

[Tucson38]

If you bleed your slave cylinder on the truck, you have to loosen it up then tilt it to bleed. You won't get the air out in the stock position.

[cjlloyd81]

Well it was fairly painless all in all. Slight learning curve (and kinda obvious when I think about it) that bleeding the master cylinder that when you go to install it after bleeding it... fluid goes everywhere till you get the line hooked up. Just FYI lol. God bless simple green!

On the slave I was able to bleed it installed using a rubber hose and a drain pan (and a pedal pusher). Took a while but thats probably because the process (I think) undid my bench bleeding of the master, and all the air in the line between master/slave didn't help anything I'm sure. So an hour or so of pedal pushing and bleeding finally got a solid stream of fluid out of the bleed valve on the slave.

End result: Clutch actually works (it's amazing how much better it drives with a fully functioning clutch huh? who'da thunk it!)

Thanks everyone

[1774btcrew]

Originally Posted by cjlloyd81

Well it was fairly painless all in all. Slight learning curve (and kinda obvious when I think about it) that bleeding the master cylinder that when you go to install it after bleeding it... fluid goes everywhere till you get the line hooked up. Just FYI lol. God bless simple green!

On the slave I was able to bleed it installed using a rubber hose and a drain pan (and a pedal pusher). Took a while but thats probably because the process (I think) undid my bench bleeding of the master, and all the air in the line between master/slave didn't help anything I'm sure. So an hour or so of pedal pushing and bleeding finally got a solid stream of fluid out of the bleed valve on the slave.

End result: Clutch actually works (it's amazing how much better it drives with a fully functioning clutch huh? who'da thunk it!)

Thanks everyone

While it seems to work good it may be possible to get it to work even better. Look up under the dash where the clutch master cylinder hooks to the clutch pedal. Remove the clip and slide the rod off the pedal. Look for this piece to be grooved. This happens to the pedals after a lot of miles. If this is the case remove the clutch pedal only and have the groove in it welded up. Grind and file smooth. The hole in the rod for the clutch master cylinder may also be ovalized if this is case replace the master cylinder. It will make a big difference as this causes the slave cylinder rod not to push as far. I sell a lot of these hydraulic set ups to my customers and always repair these before shipping out.