[Sniady]

Few days ago I was pulling out the GTV from the garage and I push the clutch in and shifter into reverse and I'm moving. Pushed the clucth back in and kinda goes out (no pressure) and the car keeps moving back with the clucth in. Hmmm what was that about, awww maybe its because the car is cold. Then comes night and its time to but the GTV in the garage and I witness the same problem with the clucth. Again I said to myself, "awww its probably because its cold". This mourning, same problem and left a oil line down my driveway I smelt it, could not recognise the oil. Drove it all day. Come night and time to pull in the GTV. So pushing the clutch into 1st, push clucth in reverse (yes, its a struggle getting it in the garage) and all of a sudden I start loosing clucth. Then it was gone, no clucth, no pressure!!!
So I pushed it into the garage. Told pops to come see why my clucth went out. We start inspecting, I can't find nor see any sort of problem! He starts looking around and pops his head up with a ****y smirk and sits down and I said what is it? Whats the problem? Clutch Replacement? Clucth Springs?

Turns out my Clucth Master cylinder fluid tank is empty. Why? Because the Operating cylinder area has a leak. Bad leak. Tomorrow I'm going to wrench at it, hopefully thats the problem.

p.s. for the clucth cylinder, what do you guys use? What kind of oil and is it a dot 3?

thanks

 

[pscalfa1]

Same thing has been happening to my Dad's Alfetta.

 

[alfa_chan]

p.s. for the clucth cylinder, what do you guys use? What kind of oil and is it a dot 3?

thanks

Hi Sniady!

I've experienced the same problem on a Subaru... turns out the slave cylinder is leaking... because of an overheated clutch... (the car was stuck in mud and my friend overheated it)

I believe it's DOT 3.
They always use the same fluid in both brake and clutch cylinders.
I've filled both a WRX and Golf VR6's clutch cylinder, they both use DOT 3.

However, I found the following website
http://www.favali.com/Fluids.htm

and it listed DOT 4...

and an UK site listed DOT 5...

as far as I know, DOT 5 is the best one for brakes...

let me check more websites for info...

and make sure you bleed the system... just like the brakes.

 

[alfa_chan]

Re: Re: Ever witness this clucth problem?

Hi Sniady!



and an UK site listed DOT 5...

Oh!! DOT 5 is not compatiable with DOT 3 & 4.

http://www.gtgtandems.com/tech/chap10.html

My best bet would be DOT 3. Easy to find...

 

[Sniady]

Its now working

So I replaced the operating clucth cylinder or as some call it a slave cylinder. I had some minor difficulties getting it off because I was short of a tool, fixed the problem by borrowing a tool.

Anyways, the clutch works. I'm a bit dissapointed in the new cylinder, it doesnt work as good as the previous one. You think maybe because the last one was a Brembo??? Did GTV's come with stock Brembo cylinders? All I know is the Brembo one was nice! Super stiff with no catching slack (like most clucths), thing was dialed in! But thats me complaining about the clucth I just have to get use to it.

I disassembled the Brembo Cylinder and found inside the spring was filled with real hard gunk. Took all the crap out of the spring and the cylinder works, no air goes through the cyliner. Do you think that the gunk was the cause of my leak??? I'm thinking of throwing back in the Old Brembo, I can't return the new one because I already installed it.

 

[Sniady]

Re: Re: Ever witness this clucth problem?

I've filled both a WRX and Golf VR6's clutch cylinder, they both use DOT 3.

You have a WRX? I think its the best bang for your buck!!!

Have any picture of the subie??? Post'em!

You live in Pasadena. I worked at Rusnak on colorado, and seen many wrx's around there. Maybe I've seen yours.

 

[alfa_chan]

Re: Its now working

Anyways, the clutch works. I'm a bit dissapointed in the new cylinder, it doesnt work as good as the previous one. You think maybe because the last one was a Brembo??? Did GTV's come with stock Brembo cylinders?

wow... Brembo...

 

[Velocewest]

Did you check the length of the actuating rod for the clutch master cylinder? If you are not getting good clutch disengagement this is may be why. The dimensions of the replacement clutch slave may be different than the one you replaced, and your master may not be pumping a long enough stroke to actuate the slave fully. I had this problem when I replaced my clutch slave last year.

Also, bleeding the clutch slave can be a pain, and hard to get all the air out. Wait a week or so and bleed it again. You may find it will firm up over time. Again, mine did.

For fluid, generally there's no reason to use any different fluid for the clutch than for the brakes. If you haven't changed the brake fluid in the last year, get a quart of Ate Blue and fully replace both your brake and clutch fluid, by sucking the fluid out of the reserviors with a turkey baster or similar, and then by bleeding the clutch slave cylinder and all 4 brakes. It's worth changing the fluid in these systems annually, brake fluid attracts a lot of water and will lose its effectiveness, giving you a soft pedal and poor braking performance.

 

[LBC]

Re: Re: Ever witness this clucth problem?

Hi Sniady!

I've experienced the same problem on a Subaru... turns out the slave cylinder is leaking... because of an overheated clutch... (the car was stuck in mud and my friend overheated it)

Ive gone through 2 clutches on my WRX so far (warranty covored of course), the first one went because of just really bad clutch shudder, when he pulled out the old pressure plate 3 of the fingers broke off of the spring diaphram (asked if i could have it but no dice) and the second time is because whoever installed the first replacement did a bad job lining up the clutch disc so it acted pretty funny the entire 2 hours I put on it. Third time is the charm and this new clutch has not had a problem for 5,000+ miles.

 

[67GTV]

Sniady!

I took my baby out for a romp last night and discovered some major clutch slippage! This was the first time I mildly pushed her. I think Sniady jinxed me! <sigh>

Not sure if I'm brave enough to drop the tranny myself.

I sure had fun roaring over the Vincent Thomas bridge doing 140! Okay, so it was kph.

 

[Sniady]

I'm proud you gave your car a romp. Alfa's need to be driven hard, because it's fun hearig the engine roar and whine like a lil... My alfa hits 6500 rpm every single time I drive it! Sometimes 7,000:

Do you think youre clutch needs to be replaced?


p.s. I can't wait to hit 118 mph in my car (thats the top speed in my manual). So far it's hit 109mph.

 

[67GTV]

Yep

My clutch was a slippin and a stinkin. If I drive her gingerly, I can procrastinate the inevitable replacement.

Speaking of roaring, my exhaust is on the noisy side. She was roaring so loud over that bridge, in 4th at 5,000 rpm's. The echo off the cement walls was almost deafening.

I used to take my Spider out for the occasional Italian tune up. But I never pushed it beyond 6,000 rpm's. I was too scared to come home by a tow truck. It was easy to peg the speedometer though. It only went to 85 mph!

 

[papajam]

Ever witness this clutch problem?

If the slave cylinder bleed screw isn't directly above the inlet hose (ie in the 12 o'clock postion), you'll never get all the air out. If the bleed screw isn't at 12 o'clock, try rotating the slave until it is and re-bleed. AMHIK!

 

[Sniady]

Interesting

Thanks for that info, good to know that.

 

[Keven]

67GTV, Carefull speeding on the St Thomas Vincent,
I have seen cops posted there lots of times.
I think that the bridge is being carefully
watched for any terrorist activity.

Also you might go flying off it onto a cruise
ship