Clutch Slave Cylinder concern

J

jsukey

Member
Hey guys, I have a couple of questions. I was pretty sure that it was my slave cylinder that gave up the ghost last week while sitting in my garage. It simply lost almost all pedal while sitting in the garage. I removed the slave earlier tonight, and it proceeded to dump a large quantity of brake fluid directly on my chest. Awesome...confirmed. The new slave cylinder should be here any day now. My questions are coming! Anyways, I noticed that the end is no longer attached to the slave cylinder itself. I'm assuming it fell to the bottom of the bell housing. I pulled the inspection cover to see if I could see it to no avail.

First, is that something that I should be worried about? I could get my hands on a bore scope to see if I could fish it out of there. Secondly, with the amount of brake fluid that has leaked into the bottom of the bell housing...should I be worried about my Centerforce clutch with only 2k miles on it? I thought I might spray a bunch of brake cleaner into the slave cylinder opening to try and flush it all out. I might start it up and do it again for good measure. When it's all said and done and put back together, I'm thinking about driving it like a 14 year old boy for a few miles, to maybe work off any of the brake fluid that may have absorbed into the clutch material. What do you guys think?

You can see what I'm talking about by the ends of a new slave cylinder, and mine:

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I'm pretty sure the tip falling off isn't gonna hurt any thing. And the fluid most likely didn't get into the clutch disks. I would just replace the slave and pay attention to noises, and differences in performance for a bit.


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I’m thinking that a very small amount may have contacted it. A few days before it went out, I had pulled it out of the garage and left it parked on the fairly steep incline out front. As I was cleaning and conditioning the soft top, I noticed that it was ever so slowly inching down the hill. I had only left it in first. It wasn’t moving fast enough where you could really notice. It just barely inched forward less than half an inch every 30 seconds or so. I didn’t put that together until I was lying in bed last night.
 
jsukey said:
I’m thinking that a very small amount may have contacted it. A few days before it went out, I had pulled it out of the garage and left it parked on the fairly steep incline out front. As I was cleaning and conditioning the soft top, I noticed that it was ever so slowly inching down the hill. I had only left it in first. It wasn’t moving fast enough where you could really notice. It just barely inched forward less than half an inch every 30 seconds or so. I didn’t put that together until I was lying in bed last night.
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In first facing up or down? Even if it did get some fluid on the clutch disk there isn't really anything that you can do. Some might say pull it apart and hose it down with brake clean, but by the time you are in there you really should just replace the friction disk. Like I said before, I would just pay attention to it, and hope you don't have to pull the trans back out.


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QuicksilverJK said:
In first facing up or down? Even if it did get some fluid on the clutch disk there isn't really anything that you can do. Some might say pull it apart and hose it down with brake clean, but by the time you are in there you really should just replace the friction disk. Like I said before, I would just pay attention to it, and hope you don't have to pull the trans back out.


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Not sure I understand that first part! Maybe I should have been more clear. I had it in first gear, ebrake off. I'll keep an ear to it once I get the new slave installed and bled. It may have shortened the life of the clutch a little bit...we'll see though. Thanks for the advice!
 
I can’t say the clutch isn’t slipping on the incline but the motor can rotate while in gear. If gravity is pulling the Jeep down hill then the compression in the cylinders is resisting that force, however there will alway be pressure loss in the cylinder since they’re not perfectly sealed. Due to this the motor will slowly rotate and the Jeep will move.


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WW_Svi said:
I can’t say the clutch isn’t slipping on the incline but the motor can rotate while in gear. If gravity is pulling the Jeep down hill then the compression in the cylinders is resisting that force, however there will alway be pressure loss in the cylinder since they’re not perfectly sealed. Due to this the motor will slowly rotate and the Jeep will move.


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Click to expand...

Didn't think about that. Guess I could try it again once I get the new slave in, open the hood and see if the pulleys are slowly turning. Good idea, thanks!
 
Wanted to post an update for you guys. Got the new slave in and bled. Took less than an hour to pull the old slave out, get the new one installed, and bleed the system. I did have to dig the flubber oring out of the old slave. Just used an allen wrench and turned it at a 45 degree angle and it popped right out. Just make sure to install it on the line until you feel the snap. It has to be fully seated. I used my $7 brake bleed bottle system. I attached the slave, but didn't install it into the trans. I attached the hose to the slave, and the other end to the bottle. I opened the bleeder and manually pushed the slave cylinder in with it pointed down, and the bleeder up. I repeated that about 3 times until no more bubbles were coming out of the bleeder. I then closed the bleeder, and installed it into the trans. Next, I pumped the clutch slowly 5 times and used a hoe to hold it down while I closed the bleeder. That was all I could do before my little bottle was full. I made sure to keep refilling my master cylinder after every time. I did that about 5 times. I was also making note to make sure I had clean fluid coming out of the bleeder. That way, I knew that new fluid had come all the way through the system. After the last time, I had a fully resistant clutch. I sprayed the inside of the bell housing down with brake cleaner as best I could. The fluid coming out was yellow, so I know there was some brake fluid in there. I started it up and drove it around the block, and all was back to normal. I sprayed more brake cleaner up through the bottom of the bell housing, just to make sure I got everything. I put maybe 100 miles on it, and it's driving the way it should now. Yes folks...you can change and bleed your clutch slave cylinder by yourself! It would have been easier with someone else, but I didn't want to bother anyone else at 1 am! Thanks for the help guys!
 
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