My clutch left me.

[gerstle]

I poked around on the forums and couldn't find much to go on, so thought I'd just throw this out there to see if I could get some ideas on where to start looking...


She's an 89 Westy that I've had for about 2 1/2 years. I had some difficult shifting for a couple months, so I changed the tranny fluid about a month and half or so ago. But, nothing really changed and it really wasn't that bad, so I forgot about it. I went out of town this past week and when I got in to drive yesterday, my clutch basically went straight to the floor and I couldn't really get it into first. Once I'm rolling, I can shift OK, but getting into first or reverse while the engine's running takes an act of god. When the engine's off, it shifts fine. I've got no fluid leaking onto my feet and I didn't see any fluid that looked like it was coming from the clutch slave cylinder. However, I did notice a decent amount of greenish looking oil that looks like it's coming from both CV joints and is all around the tranny.

What else...

The Brake/clutch reservoir looks fairly full, but haven't been paying attention.

I did notice this odd little blue thing on the top of the reservoir that i don't remember seeing before...

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/U6rmST35yhc4iWQ8yJvSe8wsLkAWrDTWwh4fgQ8LYkY?feat=directlink

Any wisdom or whisky welcome. Cheers.

casey.

[Jake de Villiers]

Try pumping the clutch pedal 20 times in neutral and then see if you can get gears without grinding. If that works, you need to bleed the slave cylinder to start with.

Good luck!
_________________
'84 Vanagon GL 1.9 WBX
'86 Westy Weekender Poptop/2.5 Subaru/5 Speed Posi/Audi Front Brakes/16 x 7.5 Mercedes Wheels - answers to 'Dixie'
@jakedevilliersmusic1
http://sites.google.com/site/subyjake/mydixiedarlin%27
www.crescentbeachguitar.com
www.thebassspa.com

[snuf]

The photo of your brake fluid reservior cap does not look right, it should look like this

the part (cover) to hold down the blue thing is missing.

That could be at least part of the problem.
Best bet would be to replace cap see if that helps your problem and and then go on to bleeding brake & clutch. Then on to master, slave cylinder and brake cylinders.
Also think about what could have cause that cover to pop off. Knocked off accidentially? Kinked or blocked line causing excess pressure in system?
_________________
1986 Wolfsberg Limited Edition Vanagon.
AKA: Poptop with rear corner cabinet, fold down side table, rear-facing jump seat and a 12v fridge/cooler.

[Jake de Villiers]

I just looked at your photo.

The 'blue thing' is part of the low brake fluid warning system. When the float goes down all the way from loss of fluid, the contact on the top will ground on the contact in the cap and VOILA!, warning light.

Its not your problem - the problem nost likely lies with the slave cylinder.
_________________
'84 Vanagon GL 1.9 WBX
'86 Westy Weekender Poptop/2.5 Subaru/5 Speed Posi/Audi Front Brakes/16 x 7.5 Mercedes Wheels - answers to 'Dixie'
@jakedevilliersmusic1
http://sites.google.com/site/subyjake/mydixiedarlin%27
www.crescentbeachguitar.com
www.thebassspa.com

[gerstle]

Thanks guys. I'm tempted to just re-do the master and slave all in one go and hope for the best. Will also look around for that little piece of the reservoir cap...

I'll let you know!

[redeyeksc]

Did you get this solved? I just had the same thing happen to me

[gerstle]

Turned out to be the slave. Which was weird cause when I was pumping the pedal, I was getting no response, but when I went and looked at the slave while someone else pumped the clutch, the slave looked like it was working. At that point, I thought it was the tranny.