ybt502r
01-31-2015, 11:17 PM
Here's a story of my clutch hydraulics, and I don't understand it, but I need to point out that this is a repeatable condition. Perhaps someone can clue me in.
I've a '77 UK-sourced SIII. Last summer, my clutch master started leaking, so I replaced it and refurbished the slave. I would have replaced the slave, but the new slave didn't quite fit, so I used its internals to rebuild my existing slave. After three months or so, my master started leaking again, and I replaced it one more time. That time, I also replaced the flexible hydraulic line connecting the two steel lines. Now, three months later, I'm losing clutch hydraulic fluid (DOT4 brake fluid) again. It does not appear to be the MC, and I can't really see evidence of where it is leaving the system. Here's where it gets tricky. When the MC fluid gets low, the clutch does not work well, and I realize it's low. So I top it off, but of course the clutch line must have some air in it now, and the clutch take up point is very low to the floor - but I can still shift fine. This goes on for a couple days with me checking the fluid daily. If and when I take the Rover to a car wash (in Alaska in the winter, the car wash usually includes an under body spray), the clutch goes back to working properly - though I need to top off the MC again. This will then work fine until some future time when enough fluid leaks out that the process repeats itself.
This has happened three times, and this third time I purposely went to a car wash to see if it self-healed, and it did. I'm wondering if I have some sort of intermittent leak (maybe triggered by the cold as it's been a bit cold lately, though the Rover is garaged) down low (the slave? the flexible line?), and thus it sort of "self-bleeds" the air out of the system. That really seems far-fetched, but I don't have any better ideas. Does anyone else? I sure don't want to pull the wing again to replace the MC a third time, especially if I'm not even sure that is the problem.
I've a '77 UK-sourced SIII. Last summer, my clutch master started leaking, so I replaced it and refurbished the slave. I would have replaced the slave, but the new slave didn't quite fit, so I used its internals to rebuild my existing slave. After three months or so, my master started leaking again, and I replaced it one more time. That time, I also replaced the flexible hydraulic line connecting the two steel lines. Now, three months later, I'm losing clutch hydraulic fluid (DOT4 brake fluid) again. It does not appear to be the MC, and I can't really see evidence of where it is leaving the system. Here's where it gets tricky. When the MC fluid gets low, the clutch does not work well, and I realize it's low. So I top it off, but of course the clutch line must have some air in it now, and the clutch take up point is very low to the floor - but I can still shift fine. This goes on for a couple days with me checking the fluid daily. If and when I take the Rover to a car wash (in Alaska in the winter, the car wash usually includes an under body spray), the clutch goes back to working properly - though I need to top off the MC again. This will then work fine until some future time when enough fluid leaks out that the process repeats itself.
This has happened three times, and this third time I purposely went to a car wash to see if it self-healed, and it did. I'm wondering if I have some sort of intermittent leak (maybe triggered by the cold as it's been a bit cold lately, though the Rover is garaged) down low (the slave? the flexible line?), and thus it sort of "self-bleeds" the air out of the system. That really seems far-fetched, but I don't have any better ideas. Does anyone else? I sure don't want to pull the wing again to replace the MC a third time, especially if I'm not even sure that is the problem.