The car was purchased and would not down shift at all. The lady parked the car and I finally got under the hood and started checking things out. The clutch master cylinder was replaced and we refilled the resevoir and staarted bleeding the clutch. Once all the air was removed the clutch allowed you to shift properly, the car was not driven immediately. About an hour later the owner showed up and wanted to drive the car. She went out and started the car and the clutch would not allow her to put it in gear, you could hear he gears grinding. I called my ASE mechanic friend and he came over and we dtermined that AIR is getting into the clutch system somehow, but it is not leaking fluid anywhere. My question is. How or where can air enter the clutch sytem? The seal on the resevoir appears to be in very good condition and when we bleed the system we are not getting any hydralic fluid into the bleeder pump thaat we are using. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Possibly the slave cylinder.

 

I just replaaced the slave master cylinder prior to bleeding the system.

 

Well we continue to bleed the clutch and get it working, the car movess back and forth and shifts fine. Let the car sit for 30 or so minutes and the clutch dos not work and you cannot shift again. So rebleed, it works about 30 minutes later nothing again. I am at wits end, hope to get some input.

 

If there is no leak, then either the slave cylinder or master is bad. It wouldn't be anything new for a new part to be bad.

 

The slave cylinder has been my thought the entire time. Today two ASE mechanics are suppose to be here to manually bleed the clutch to see what happens. I think the worst part of that will be the wait to see what happens after 30 or so minutes. I am really not looking forward to having to remove the tranny to replace the slave cylinder, but if thats what has to happen then I will get it out. I will post again later today or tomorrow what we determine the problem is. Thank you all for your help.

 

Got a little bit done yesterday. The clutch cylinder that was just replaced had failed. Removed it and installed another new one and started bleeding the clutch manually. It appears that everything is coming together, but had to stop working. We are waiting for the vacuum pump to be availible from the shop to make the bleeding faster and easier. I will keep you posted here in the next few days.