Clutch Pedal

[Paul R Luevano]

Well, it did it to me again.  Last night, I was leaving downtown Boston,
and the clutch pedal went to the floor.   Grrr.  Started it in gear and
drove it home, but it was a RPITA.

On the way home, the pedal came back, fully functional.  Ok.  Then this
am, went right to the floor again.  I checked the brake fluid reservoir,
it was a tad low, so I topped it off, but it didn't seem to help.

Now, this happened to me this summer as well, but after topping off the
brake fluid it was fine until now.  I suspect I have a leaking slave
cylinder.  I top off the fluid, it comes back for a while until air
enters the system again.  Sound likely?  

I'm guessing my only real course of action is to replace the slave
cylinder, but from what I have heard, that is a major, major PITA.  I
would also like to make sure that is the problem, before I tackle the
job.  

Are there any checks or test I can perform to make sure it is the slave
cylinder?  Are there any other likely culprits?

<Insert lunch>

Went out and checked it again, there is a puddle of brake fluid
underneath the car.  I topped it off and ran some errands.  the clutch
fluctuated from completely useless to 100% functional.

I'm guessing that is it time for a new slave cylinder, since if I look
at the bell housing from the engine compartment, I can see that it is
wet.

I looked over Chris Miller's page, and the following paragraph confuses
me:

"Symptoms: in my case the major symptom was the excessive use of clutch
fluid.  As the master cylinder is located in the pedal box on the inside
of the bell housing, it is a easy matter to check where the fluid is
leaking.  No obvious leaks means that the slave cylinder (which would
leak into the bell housing) is the culprit. "

Unless I'm understanding something wrong, since I have an obvious leak,
it would be the master cylinder, but I though the master cylinder was in
the drivers foot well.

Any help would be appreciated, need my car, getting too cold to ride!

TIA.
-- 
____________________________________________________________________
Paul Luevano            |  AMA #418487  |'99 CBR 600F4  (Racebike)
http://teamdaemon.com   | USM * CCS #898|'97 CBR 1100XX (Streetbike)
Waltham, MA USA         |  NMA #116657  |'91 200TQ20V   (Winter)
________"Man's purpose is to live, not to exist."-Jack London_______