84 Vanagon 1.9L Clutch/Slave Cylinder Problem

[WesternMassRich]

Hey,

I have the motor in and it's running great.

I stepped on the clutch pedal and tried to shift and the clutch barely disengaged. The van barely went into gear, there was little travel/free play and the clutch would not disengage.

I put in a new German Clutch - a higher torque one for a Synchro. I was told it would be a bit of a performance enhancer, so I put it in.

After I looked at the Slave Cylinder, I could see the piston was fully extended all the way from the base of the Slave Cylinder and the lever that releases the clutch was not moving.

The lever that releases the clutch can not be moved by hand. Can it ?

Anyways, I happen to have a spare brand new Slave Cylinder and I am getting into that today.

The hard plastic collar that goes around the piston was split vertically. So, it's junk now.

Can I disengage the clutch by pulling down on the lever at the base of the slave cylinder to make sure the clutch disengages ?

I want to make sure the clutch is traveling the way it should be and is mounted and installed correctly. I would think that if the clutch does not manually engage and disengage the clutch install is messed up, and I will need to straighten it out. And I already know what that means.

Is this a good way to make sure the clutch is working correctly before I install the new Slave Cylinder ?

TIA.

Rich

[ajdenette]

Yes you can but your going to need a bit of a lever to do it.
The other thing to look at that I have a slight issue with is the plastic ring around the back of the arm for the mounting bracket. If this is bending and not centered on the arm it bends instead of pushing the lever down. Or if the shaft doesn’t move well it could rupture the line.

[WesternMassRich]

I am on it, I have the old Slave Cylinder half way out and it looks like I am going to be replacing the hydraulic line to the Slave Cylinder.

I snapped the line to the connector when I was trying to loosen the hydraulic line from the Slave. damn !

Oh well, better now than later I say.

I tried to move the clutch lever to see if I could budge it but, I could not and I did not want to damage or break anything else. I really hope I did not screw up installing the clutch, that would REALLY suck.

Rich

[WesternMassRich]

The new Slave Cylinder is in, I am waiting for the female unit to bring me a hydraulic line from CAP - like the one I busted a couple of hours ago.

The other stuff looks good so far. It's a bit crusty under there. I also took off the H Hose connector on the front firewall and emptied the four hoses. It gives room to work in there.

There's a sequence to follow when you are positioning the cylinder over its' mounting holes.

From underneath, you have to put the REAR nut on first orienting the bolt head downward towards the ground with a washer behind it. Then thread the nut on the rear bolt loosely, by two threads or so. Go to the rear of the vehicle

Then position the Cylinder so it is ready to mount. Make sure the hemispherical cup on the base of the Slave sits freely on the top of the ball on the clutch lever.

Then you can snug it up and attach the (unbroken) hydraulic line fitting to the rear of the slave cylinder.

Bleed it or force feed it from the bleeder screw to the brake/clutch system fluid tank under the dash. Take the cover off the tank and/or gravity force feed it from a line connected to the bleeder port on the unit.

I think this works hey ?

Rich



Slide the bolt into the forward mount and then hand tighten it.

Take the nut off the rear mounting bolt and place the unit onto top of the bolt sticking up then loosely thread the