All 3 places really. If there is still fluid in the master, then I bet it's the slave. Have someone push the pedal in while you look at the slave, fluid should squirt out. It may only leak when pressurized, which is why you have fluid in the reservoir.

replaced the master(which was leaky), slave(to a tel fwd), put in longer clutch rod, and welded the pedal assembly(which helped, but didnt solve it)

what finally solved it was welding a nut behind the pedal assembly where the master rod attaches!

oh, and the clutch fork and pivot ball are new too!

during upgrade

Mines got soft recently. I believe its the slave cylinder. I'm gunna replace is when i pull my motor out. Along with a bunch of other things.

mine sent the pedal to the floor, over about 4 shifts, ended up being the master....but then again a few months earlier, i replaced the slave when i did the clutch... it was a small leak, part inside, part outside, as i found a small amount of fluid under the car and on the floor inside...maybe take a look on both sides of the firewall to see if there is any fluid.

A lot of times when one goes bad the other is right behind it in failing. When we used to do them on the 3KGT's a lot at the Mitsu dealer I would always recommend doing both so that I wouldn't be the "crappy tech" who couldn't look into a crystal ball and see that the other part was about to go. If one is bad I'd recommend doing both.

John

Whats involved in doing the clutch fork, if it turns out the master and slave cylinders are OK? Another member PM'ed me about the same symptom, but the rod is being actuated properly and a new slave didn't help.

That sucks My slave cylinder went out a couple weeks ago and I replaced it with a "Pink" T/E/L one. The symptoms before going out were sluggish and sloppy engage of gears while shifting until it went out entirely. When it did let go out the pedal went straight to the floor after pumping it and getting all the fluid out a couple times then it never came back up. The slave cylinder is an easy fix (10 mins tops). But if it's a clutch fork, good luck man. The steps are pretty much the same as if you were replacing the entire clutch.


Oh yea and if you have to drain the clutch fluid it's just Brake fluid. Dot3 I think

Slave cyl is out (that was easy!) but I think its probably OK. It holds pressure (cover the fitting hole with my thumb and push on the rod). The slave pushes on an arm/fulcrum. Theres no provision for it to PULL on that arm, only push. Based on that I'd expect the arm to pop back by itself when you push it. Its not. I can click the arm to the left, or to the right, and it stays there. Am I right that it should pop back by itself?

edit: Why does CAPS show the rod with a notch at the end? I think its just a bad diagram.

The slave cylinder is a one way hydraulic push. It has no pull of its own(much like a brake cylinder). The return is provided by the spring from the clutch fingers imparted to the clutch arm. The clutch wants to be engaged. The slave cylinder pushes to oppose the tension and moves the arm against the spring tension. The clutch fingers provide the push which in turn depresses the slave cylinder arm back to its inner travel.

You are correct in that it is a lever. But pushing against a spring loaded clutch. It turns an inch of travel into several hundred pounds of force using an incompressible liquid. That in turn is actuating a lever which turns 1" of travel into thousands of pounds of friction holding surface area.

Think of it like a solenoid. It actuates. A solenoid has to have an independent force to return it whether by spring, magnetic, pressure, ect.

Steve anything i pretty much have the same problem that you have.fix the car all up going for a test drive and reverse grinds then it doesnt go into gear.