• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

Dead Clutch Master Cylender

rkneeshaw

CEG'er
Joined
Dec 6, 2001
Messages
471
Location
Petoskey, Michigan
For once, its the master cylender and not the slave! At least I'm sure of it, and am goign to describe whats happening to you so you can agree with me and make me feel better about ordering parts overnight.

So I've been noticing when I start the car that I can have the clutch pedal all the way slammed to the floor and its not fully disengaging the clutch. So I'll start the car and if its in 1st gear the car starts creaping forward with teh clutch pedal fully depressed. After the car warms up a bit, the clutch will seamingly fully disengage and I can drive and shift, however even the slightest lift off the clutch pedal and BAM, its engaging. So I think hmm, got to bleed the clutch and that should fix it, probably just some air in the line.

Well. No.

Pumping the clutch pedal will not produce any pressure in the line. I release the squirt valve on the slave to bleed and theres no pressure, maybe a drop of fluid comes out. The clutch pedal just flops around (well, theres a spring that helps push it back out, but I can tell, the pumping action does absolutely nothing, its like the pedal is just hanging there). So now my clutch wont do anything. There is no fluid leaking anywhere at all, so the slave cylinder (with about 50,000 miles on it) must still be ok so I'm thinking with 185,000 miles on the clutch master cylinder that it has failed.

Sound about right to everyone? I need a new clutch master cylinder?

PS the clutch in our cars, while sharing the brake fluid reservior, does NOT use the brake master cylinder, it has its own directly behind the clutch pedal mounted to the firewall.
 
Well, now I'm worried, installed the new clutch master cylinder and still no pressure on the clutch pedal. It just wont pump up. I'm not leaking fluid anywhere.... how is that possible? If I'm pumping, it must be moving fluid somewhere.... but its not, because the reservoir never goes down in fluid level..... maybe a line blockage between the reservoir and master cylinder? God that would suck huh.
 
Ok got it. I had to leave the bleeder screw open on the slave cylinder, pump the clutch a few times to get the master cylinder primed with fluid instead of air, then proceeded to bleed as normal. Works great now!

I can't believe how much more clutch pedal travel I have now, I really have to relearn how to drive my car. The clutch used to engage only probably a 1/4 inch off the floor, now I can let the pedal almost all the way out completely before it engages, its completely different, MUCH more like it used to be when I bought the car 8 years ago. Wow, that was a long time ago. Anyway, I'm all good and hopefully this info helps the next guy.
 
Back
Top