I recently replaced my clutch master cylinder. I'm getting conditions where my clutch sticks, can't pull the car out of gear, etc. There's always a nice little puddle of hydraulic fluid. The saab faq's state that's usually the slave cylinder, but I'm not too certain that it might not be the piping between the master/slave.
Any ideas? Also.. any ideas what I might look at to have someone do it for me? I could pull, and reseat the slave and clutch. Problem is, I can't pressure bleed the thing.. I don't have the equipment.
What does the pedal feel like? Do you get constant resistance all the way from (pretty near) the top of the travel to the bottom, or is there a long part of the travel with no resistance, followed by resistance half way down? Go have a feel, and try to describe it as accurately as possible - it will help us figure out what's going on.
Where? When?
Need more info.
You can make a very, very good pressure bleeder from a £10 garden sprayer. We've described this on this ng quite a few times - worth googling for.
Well, the fact that you see a puddle of fluid says that you have a leak. Yes it could be from the slave cylinder or it could be from the piping from the master to the slave or it could be the new master cylinder for that matter. If it is hard to see where the fluid is coming from or the fluid seems to be coming from inside the transmission bell housing then the chances are good it is the slave cylinder leaking.
You don't need the pressure bleeding equipment until after you find and fix the leak.
It's typically the long part of the travel with no resistance, followed by resistance half way down, however, I do sometimes get immediate restistance.(I know this is air somewhere in the system.
The leak shows up more toward the drivers's side than directly under the bell housing, and it's typically once I've left it sitting overnight that I see the puddle.
If you're sure the leak is hydraulic fluid, and not engine oil, then you need to fix that first. Shouldn't be difficult to figure out where it's coming from.
Once you've fixed the leak, then you can pressure bleed.
You say driver's side. Is it near the firewall? Or near the front of the car?
Use the Dave Hinz method of clutch bleeding. I call it the IV method. You bleed backwards by connecting a hose to the slave and the other end to the bottom of an elevated turkey baster and pour in fluid until the air bubbles stop.
Then put the bulb back on the turkey baster and suck out the dirty fluid from the reservoir, then refill reservoir.
Turkey baster - $1.50 at Wal Mart
10' hose - $3.00 at Home Depot (next to Walmart in Evergreen, CO).
Ok, that's not good - I wouldn't drive a car in that condition.
The line is pretty robust - it's possible, but not all that likely. I'd say slave seal or slave bleed nipple. But at that rate of leakage, it should be very easy to spot what's leaking.
Based on the location, I'd be suspicious of either the master or the piping connection to the master cylinder (especially since it was the last thing replaced before this began)
Oddly enough... I found today that if I flutter the clutch pedal if there's lots of travel, it becomes stiff again.. almost as if I'm pumping air out of the thing.
Does that point more to 1 versus the other?
For malt hound.. there is no leakage near the master cylinder at all. I'm not suspecting that as a culprit.
That indicates *clearly* that you have air in the system.
No. It is consistent with having a leak. You need to find it.
You are going round the problem.
Sorry, but looking at previous messages I can't see what car you have. C900 or something else? On the C900 there was a black plastic guard round the flywheel .... you could remove it etc. and inspect.
If you have one of the other post C900 or 9000 models then to get to the slave cylinder is an expensive job.
Whichever car you have if you get it up on a ramp you will be a lot wiser. For example I remember the C900 having drainage holes on the bottom of the bell housing. If the newer models have similar and there is fluid coming through them it does not matter what exactly leaks you still need the gearbox to come out.
Before you go as far as that you should be able to follow the pipes from above and see if there is any leakage.
IMHO if a pipe has gone weak enough to leak it will put out a lot more fluid when you press the pedal. In fact I would say you will not be able to declutch.
What you got to watch out - if you are still driving the car - is that if it is the slave cylinder seals or a flexible pipe, it will get worse fast. Don't drive it until you fix the problem.
You can either put your head underneath the car or better take off the clutch/flywheel cover (around 10 short bolts, with probably 8mm head) remove the cover (I remembers some clips were also held in place by the same bolts).
The summary is, trace visually the pipes to where they reach the bell housing. The bleeding nipple will be there too. I can't remember if you can view the nipple with the cover in place or if it had to be off.
Failing to find a leak there, then you have to peek inside the bell housing AND underneath it too at the drainage holes (I think the drainage holes where more or less underneath the flywheel) and rectangular parallelograms.
If it happens to be the slave cylinder, it is not as bad on a C900 as on the other saabs. Other people have documented how to get to it.
I would also check that your brake caliper is not leaking. Your car should have a shared reservoir between brake and clutch master cylinders. I suggest this because it happened to me (curiously also during clutch work).
As far a bleeding goes, you can purchase a cheap hand operated bicycle tire pump and make a reservoir fitting. I used a large fender washer with a bolt diameter that would take a tire valve and outside diameter large enough to fit the cap of the reservoir. To use this assembly, you just need to pop the level indicator from the cap ( it comes out fairly easy) and fit the washer/tire valve in its place. I got the tire valve from my local auto parts store and the washer from a local hardware store. Note, to get the fit I was happy with, I got a washer that had a slightly larger than needed outside diameter and used a bench grinding wheel to resize it.
When pressurizing, do not use too much pressure or you will pop seals. About 10 - 20 PSI is what I used.
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