Pursuant to my Nov. 23, 2001 post ( http://gerry.vanagon.com/cgi- bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0111d&L=vanagon&F=&S=&P=9935 ) asking for help bleeding the clutch lines & a leaking clutch slave cylinder, Brent Christensen helped the most by supplying his post: http://gerry.vanagon.com/cgi- bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0111D&L=vanagon&P=R5712 . Brent's posting contains several other contributing emails. Thanks Brent & others. As I had no clutch, I had the van towed to my PO trusted mechanic and with my vanagon emails in hand I asked if he wanted the collective wisdom/advice of the vanagon list. "Not really, we do these all the time" he said. Now, I have carbs on my syncro so what happened next may not be a good idea on your van. The bolts for the slave cylinder are very awkward to "get at" (See Brent's email). So my mechanic took out the coolant hose that goes from the thermostat housing to the top cross-over pipe. He now had VERY good access to that hard to reach bolt and changing the cylinder was not so bad. With the new slave cylinder in, we tried to bleed the clutch (also brake) fluid to purge any air. Well my clutch had NO! resistance. We pumped and pumped the clutch pedal - got some air out, but NO! resistance on the pedal. So, my smart mechanic new what the problem was - the plunger thingy in the master cylinder had "collapsed" (or whatever) and was not doing its thing. So he went to the rear and pushed up hard on the slave cylinder plunger and that forced the fluid back through the system and freed the plunger in the master cylinder. Worked first time, I had pressure on the clutch pedal and then we were able to bleed the system. (bled the brakes while we were at it). I hope that this post helps somebody. If it does, please drop me a line, I may need a shot of vanagon that day. malcolm |
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