slave cylinder?

JJ · 06-03-2003, 06:59 AM

On the way to the office this morning I drove away from a stop sign, shifted to second gear and the engine rev'd freely. My clutch pedal has been sticking lately, I wonder if the slave cylinder finally went. Here is the condition of the car now: Runs fine- can push clutch pedal in normally, can move shifter freely from gear to gear, but power is not going to drive wheels. Clutch, TO bearing and flywheel are less than a year old, I am not hard on the clutch either. Is it possible that the slave cylinder has failed completely and as a result the clutch is not fully engaging? Any help, advice greatly appreciated.

Bob's944 · Bob's944's Garage

That's easy to check if you have someone to depress the clutch while yer under the car. The clutch housing has a peep hole so you can see if the slave is working, there should be a rubber plug in the hole. Remove the plug, have someone push in the clutch and look to see if the slave is moving. Somewhere you would be leaking brake fuid, that would most likely be at the slave if it has failed. If your brake fluid is low, it could be coming from the clutch hydraulics. Usually if it's the master cylinder, the pedal will stick to the floor.

drew1 · 06-03-2003, 07:48 PM

JJ,

Unplug fuel pump relay, put the rear of the car in the air, put the car in gear & have somebody crank the motor over, without mashing the clutch. See if the rear wheels turn. If at least one does , hold it & see if the other will turn. If both wheels don't turn but the CV flanges on the transmission do, then you have a stub axle, CV axle, or CV problem. On an open diferential, not limited slip, if one side is bad the car won't move. While you are under there, watch while a buddy shifts gears to make sure transmission is going in gear. That little pointy screw could have come out of the linkage or linkage come off shifter. If you are OK so far, check the coupling between the drive shaft & transmission input shaft. If input shaft doesn't turn when drive shaft turns, either coupling or spines on one of the shafts are bad. If drive shaft doesn't turn when cranking, pull the slave cylinder out & try again. If you still don't get turning, maybe it's the clutch fork hanging. Those little needle bearings can go bad & eat into the fork shaft. I pretty sure you'll have to drop the transmission & slide the torque tube back to change fix this. Next thing, that blame rubber clutch. I hope the probemis slave cyl or a CV.

drew1

1.2gees · 1.2gees's Garage

That doesn't sound like a slave cylinder problem. When clutch hydrolics fail, they usually leave the clutch engaged, and not the otherway around.
Ahmet

drew1 · 06-04-2003, 06:11 PM

1.2 gees,

Yep, slave cyl is probably least of his worrys. I hope its hanginging up , because he could be having bad stuff like the ring & pinion & diff problems like you a few years ago.

drew1

JJ · 06-05-2003, 07:01 PM

Okay,
Here is what has happened, Got the car to the shop that originally did the work. Car on lift, 2 bolts missing from bellhousing and the rest on their way out. everything from bellhousing back checks out okay. Because the bellhousing was separating from everthing else the clutch failed (came apart). shop says: we told you to replace the bellhousing bolts. to which I said: I spent 2800 dollars, if you had told me to replace some stupid bolts, don't you think I would have? In the end they agree to do the job for $350. I have to provide the parts though and I'm okay with that since there is no clear reason for the bolts backing out. I' ve known and worked with these guys for 6 years so I don't want to throw around blame. In the end I'm fairly happy with the outcome. Now what does everyone think about aluminum flywheels(specificaly Fidanza)?
Thanks again!

1.2gees · 1.2gees's Garage

I wouldn't personally spend the extra dough for an aluminum flywheel on your S2, unless a free revving engine is a priority, and you have even more disposable cash than I do (which IS quite possible, as I'm a student)...
Ahmet

Bob's944 · Bob's944's Garage

I've been told an aluminum flywheel could be the best single mod, as long as labor isn't an issue. They used to be up around $600-$700 before the Fidanza came out, it's alot more attractive when it's only $300-$400.