yea, if you have a soft hose (not easily discernable) it will swell when you pressurize the line, clutch won't move. //// note, he said he just bled, rbld, the slave so i still think the rod is in the wrong spot.
I'll pull the slave back out for an inspection before I order a new flex line. The actuator rod was held firmly in position by the pin/staple on the lever end; I'll check it again to make sure it is still tight and if possible to see if there is any resistance when I try to push it by hand. Then a careful reinstallation assuring the actuator rod is centered in the cup of the slave cylinder piston. After that, if there problem remains, I will see about replacing the flex line.
There should be an inspection plate on top of the bellhousing, held in place by the front bolts of the gear lever mounting bracket. I think its main purpose is to give a view of clutch plate condition, but pulling that bracket and removing the plate would give you a way to see inside and watch what happens when the clutch pedal is depressed. Bracket and main shift lever would all come off as one piece. You could use a small mirror or borescope to get a view of the movement of the clutch fork and throw out bearing. My engine and gearbox are currently out of the car due to a similar hard-to-diagnose problem. I only wish I had known about the inspection plate before pulling the gearbox. You do have to pull the floor and tunnel covers to get to it. Let me know if you could use any pictures.
DHager, thank you - that is a great tip! Exactly what I needed for verification before tearing out the gearbox. I have the left (LHD) floor panel out for easy access to the slave bleeder pipe. Will proceed to remove the center now. Any photos that come easily to hand would be great. Thanks again!
without re-reading all this I believe all he's done is re-new the slave and possibly the master and I still think he has air in there.
since one stroke of the pedal doesn't always displace a line full of fluid the possibility of air in there is good and submerging a tube affixed to the bleed on the slave, then pumping the pedal without closing the bleed a few times can elimate this.
I'd hate to see the floor plates pulled only to find that oft times hard to displace air is still in the line !!
Both the master and slave cylinder were replaced with new and bench-bled before installation. Then performed a reverse bleed from the slave cylinder until there were no air bubbles and master reservoir was full. Thanks for your concern; there is no air in the system.
I agree that pulling those floor plates can be a pain in the butt. Mine were literally glued down by some previous owner and it took days to get them off without damage. It was a real mess. Somehow I lost the original inspection plate from my bellhousing, I think maybe when I cleaned the gearbox with Gunk and power washed it in a gravel area. I had to make a new one from some aluminum plate. You can see it in these external and internal pics.
That's perfect, thanks for the photos! Luckily for me, the floor panels come out very easily on mine. It looks like it should be pretty straightforward to take a look in there with the endoscope once I have removed the inspection plate. Knowing the status of the actuator rod and clutch lever will be a huge help!
Yes! I can work with this - lots of room to send the endoscope in to see what is (or isn't) happening inside. And I have some serious cleaning to do. Thanks for the tip DH - even looking at the parts catalog I didn't notice that plate.
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