[V8] clutch

[Dave Saad]

well - this sucks.
My clutch stopped releasing fully just a few days after I got the new rack installed.  I hoped it was some sort of hydraulic problem - and it looked good for a while that it was.  The master had a broken internal spring, and the hose was looking like it might be stretching a little so I replaced both.  The slave is good.  Still no go.  I can't imagine what might have gone wrong with the clutch to cause this.  It made no sound.  It just won't release all the way.  It was replaced about 70K miles ago.  The symptom is the pedal feels a little soft, and is most of the way down before it starts to really feel like it is doing any work.

I have tried bleeding the system every way I can think of and am (99.46%) certain it is not that.  This is a real PITA to do by the way.  I think the easiest way to bleed the clutch is to hang the car by the back bumper with a crane so the air bubbles go to the top of the slave.  What I really ended up doing was bleeding the system with the slave off the transmission and turned vertical.  This of course made installing the slave lots of fun since you have to compress it with your pinky while installing the bolt with your tongue - all while blindfolded.  I hope DOT4 is not poisonous.

So - it looks like I will be pulling a motor real soon.  In the meantime of course I am driving my beat up old '83 ranger with who knows how many hundreds of thousands of miles on it.  It still has all original hydraulic parts for both clutch and brakes.  It would still have the original clutch too except I changed it a few years ago because I was towing my trailer and just could not believe it was still good.  It was.

Grrrr

Dave