Clutch to Floor

[JAMADOR]

Had read elsewhere about this & had it happen today.
Clutch went to the floor & stayed there, a tiny bump from below & it springs back in place.

Had to clutchless shift a couple times, safer than reaching down to pop it back up.

Cause/fix?

 

[Capri to ST]

That generally means the clutch slave cylinder has gone bad. To replace it, you have to drop the transmission so before doing that you might try a good flush of the clutch fluid, that sometimes helps.

 

[JAMADOR]

Ugh, that's not what I wanted to hear. How had is the R&R of the slave?
Any tips on a fluid flush? Is there a bleed nipple to drain from?

 

[Capri to ST]

I'm not much of a mechanic so I don't do the work myself, so I can't advise you on the specifics of how you do it.
There are a lot of folks on here who are quite good at working on their cars and hopefully one of them will chime in with the information.

 

[Grsemky]

Ugh, that's not what I wanted to hear. How had is the R&R of the slave?
Any tips on a fluid flush? Is there a bleed nipple to drain from?

On the front of the tranny there is a bleed screw/nipple, there should be a yellow cap, typically you reverse bleed into the brake reservoir... use something like this to inject the fluid from the nipple

 

[madhatter]

i don't own a reverse bleeder. I used a mityvac and just bled it normally like i do brakes from the caliper. You have to remove the intake box and battery to get to the valve. put a bleeder on it and rotate the yellow valve by hand and watch the black gunk that's been riding around in your slave cylinder come out.

**that black gunk is why i don't personally like reverse bleeders. reverse bleeding would push that baked brake fluid up into your brake master cylinder, which is not optimal. YMMV.

 

[JAMADOR]

Might be worth a shot before diving into R&R the slave.
Is bleeding the clutch a 2-man job? I've only done brakes on other cars.

Just got back from running my kid to school & it feels nearly normal so far. A little slow to return, but didnt stick to the floor.

 

[madhatter]

if you've got a vacuum bleeder you can do it solo. otherwise, prob. a 2 man job.

 

[Grsemky]

if you've got a vacuum bleeder you can do it solo. otherwise, prob. a 2 man job.

According to Ford you're supposed to reverse bleed to flush, purchase a fluid extractor like I linked above... No need to remove the air box, put it up on jacks and there's plenty of clearance. After you moved the nasty fluid to the reservoir use the same extractor to remove and replace with fresh fluid, takes maybe 5 min and no helpers required

 

[JAMADOR]

Do the brakes & clutch share a reservoir? Took a brief look earlier this morning & only saw the one [driver's side at the back].

 

[SteveS]

Flushing the fluid will definitely give an improvement. I took the car to the dealer and had them flush and refill both the clutch and brake fluids (shared reservoir) and bleed both systems. It was around $300 to do that. The clutch pedal sticking had become a constant, recurring problem. It's now been at least a year and a half since, and still working great. Do change the habit of holding the clutch in while waiting at a stoplight though.

 

[Grsemky]

Do the brakes & clutch share a reservoir? Took a brief look earlier this morning & only saw the one [driver's side at the back].

Correct clutch and brake share a reservoir and fluid

 

[JAMADOR]

I definitely don't ride the clutch. Habit brought from my 75 Midget which can get some major issues from it [thrust washers] on the crankshaft.
Just crossed 100k, might be worth doing coolant flush at the same time. New spark plugs should be here today.

 

[Grsemky]

I definitely don't ride the clutch. Habit brought from my 75 Midget which can get some major issues from it [thrust washers] on the crankshaft.
Just crossed 100k, might be worth doing coolant flush at the same time. New spark plugs should be here today.

When I buy a new(to me) car I always go through all the fluids and plugs, just cause you never know others maintenance habits and talk is cheap lol

 

[JAMADOR]

I've only put about 2k on it, but agreed.
Did the same with my Midget, but that's a grumpy old Brit. And glad I did, the trans was completely dry, maybe an ounce or 2 of fluid came out, on top of the 11 year old tires that were on it. Glad we trailered it home.

 

[M-Sport fan]

Correct clutch and brake share a reservoir and fluid

There is a 'spillway' hose coming off of the single reservoir which goes directly to the clutch master cylinder, completely bypassing the brake master cylinder, thereby negating madhatter's concerns about contaminating the brake master with filthy fluid by reverse flushing, correct??

The only dirty used fluid which would get into the system at all by reverse flushing the clutch slave cylinder would be from where that hose connects to the reservoir and into the reservoir itself (far FAR away from either the brake master or the caliper pistons).

 

[Grsemky]

There is a 'spillway' hose coming off of the single reservoir which goes directly to the clutch master cylinder, completely bypassing the brake master cylinder, thereby negating madhatter's concerns about contaminating the brake master with filthy fluid by reverse flushing, correct??

The only dirty used fluid which would get into the system at all by reverse flushing the clutch slave cylinder would be from where that hose connects to the reservoir and into the reservoir itself (far FAR away from either the brake master or the caliper pistons).

Exactly, as long as you don't modulate your brakes there's no cause for that dirt to move from the reservoir...

 

[Zormecteon]

Bleed all you want, but it's time to replace the slave cylinder.

Call Whoosh to see if they can get the RTS CSC slave. which has been out of stock for about a year, but worth it if they can find one for ya.

 

[JAMADOR]

Oddly, and maybe false hope. It's driven fine all yesterday & today. Even with the mindless stop/go of the school pickup line.

 

[SteveS]

Note, regarding Zorm's comment, that you don't just want to bleed the system. You want to flush and replace the fluid. The pedal sticking will come and go. It depends on heat in the clutch. The hotter it gets, the worse it gets. You'll learn to pop the pedal back up with the edge of your foot. Ours went on like this for the better part of a year, gradually getting worse, because based on the posts in this forum I believed the only recourse was to pull the transmission and replace the slave cylinder. But several people expressed that it had gotten better with a fluid flush so I decided to try it, especially since I was having the front brake pads replaced. And the pedal sticking did indeed go away.

During the first 3 years of ownership I had the oil changed at the dealer every 5000 miles. When we reached 30,000 miles, they recommended a brake fluid flush and fill that they said Ford recommended, which I declined thinking they were just trying to generate income. But now that I think about it, as long as you include the clutch fluid and bleeding in that, it may prevent the pedal sticking from happening so soon before the clutch needs replacing.