Clutch Hydrolic system

[SR24DET]

I have been seeing a high ammout of qustions regarding problems with clutch systems. Most popular is the, " my clutch goes down and doesnt come back up." thing. I have had massive problems with my clutch in the past and from that, learned alot about it. This will hopefully be a post that people can search for in the future and help them out.

How it worksThe clutch system is pretty straight forward. When you step on the clutch pedal, it pushes a piston into the clutch master cylinder. This pushed the hydrolic fluid through the line into the dampener. The dampener is a little black box under the passenger side of the car. The fluid moves through this and down through another line that just loops back into the box. I believe its purpuse is to soften the feel on the clutch pedal. From here the fluid flows through a soft line into the slave cylinder. Inside the slave cylinder the fluid pushes a little pin that pushes on the clutch fork. The fork is connected to the input shaft on the transmission. The fork has a bearing clipped to the end that touches the clutch. This is the system that engages and dissengages the clutch from the flywheel.

TroubleshootingA very common problem is the clutch pedal going down, but not comming up again. This could be a couple different things.

1st- Check to see if you have fluid. If there isnt any fluid in the system, there is air. Hydrolic fluid is used over other fluids because it doesnt compress the same. But if there is any air in the system, it will crush the air pocket. This means the pedal will go down, but the other end does nothing.

2nd- If there is, try and bleed the system. If it comes to this, I strongly recomend removeing the dampener. This box seems almost impossible to bleed. Many, many people have tried for a long, long time, and in the end still had to remove theres. This is very simple, and slightly stiffens your pedal.

Remove the dampener(to remove the dampener, just disconnect the hardline that feeds into the box. Then disconnect the box from the softline that connects to the slave cylinder. Use a brake line bender, or some sort of can, and bend the hard line the other way so it connects to the soft line. Then just unbolt the box from under the car. Now your system should go, master cylinder, hardline, softline, slave. Some people skip all this a remove all the lines and the dampener and just buy a SS line and run it straight from the master to the slave. This will not reck anything. If you search you can find pictures and such on the internet.)

3rd- Check for leaks. Have one person step on the pedal while the other looks around.

4th- Now there shouldnt be any air in the line, the dampener should be removed, hydrolic fluid in the system, and no leaks. If the slave pin still isnt pushing on the clutch fork then one of the cylinders is bad (master or slave). Block the master cylinder line and put fluid in the system now try and compress the cylinder. If it does, then the master is bad. If it doesnt, then the slave is bad. The master cylinder is only about $30, and the slave is only $20. Both are cheap.

Replaceing Clutch Master Cylinder(Disconnect line from master cylinder. Go under the dash by the clutch pedal. There should be a rod sticking out from the fire wall connecting to the pedal. remove the pin do-hicky from the dowel, then slide the dowel out from the fork. This will disconnect the fork from the pedal. Now go back under the hood and disconnect the two nuts that hold the master cylinder to the firewall. Now you can pull the master cylinder out of the firewall. Before installing the new master cylinder, make sure the fork on the new one is the same length away as the old one. Then slide the new one back into the hole. Slightly screw on the nuts so the cylinder doesnt fall back off. Now go back under the dash and connect the fork to the pedal. Slide the dowel through and slip in the pin do-hicky. Go back under the hood and finish tightening down the nuts. check the pedal to make sure it goes all the way down, and all the way up. If not, disconnect everythig and spin the fork the proper way so that it is the correct distance on the rod. Once its all correct, reconnect the line. Put hydrolic fluid in it and bleed it. Done.)

Replaceing Slave Cylinder(Disconnect hydrolic line from slave. Remove the two bolts holding it to the side of the transmission. Done removeing it. Install new one. Make sure the pin is pushing on the clutch fork. Bolt in the two bolts. Reconnect hydrolic line. Bleed system. Done.)

5th- If you have done all this, when you step on the clutch pedal it will go down and come back up. Also, when you push in the pedal, the slave pin will push the fork.

The only parts left in the system are the fork, and the clutch itself. If the fork broke or popped off, then you need to fix. This is done by removeing the transmission. Search clutch replaceing.

I believe this is the entire system. If you have anything to add, feel free. Sorry for there not being any pix. I havent worked on this is some time and dont think I have any pix. Some day I will go out and snap alot of pix and update this.

-CJ
Modified by SR24DET at 8:50 PM 12/29/2009