2001 w/ M5OD trans. I am at 105k mi. and my second Motorcraft slave cylinder. Just had a new one installed with a Spec stage II clutch last year / about 6k mi. ago.

For the last 50k or so miles, I have had about an inch of freeplay in the clutch pedal. That is, the first inch is taken up as slack before disengaging begins.

Well, since this new clutch I have noticed that when letting it out to let the clutch engage, it tends to vary where the engagement starts happening. One day it will start to grab as soon as I relax my toes, and other days all the action happens at the very end of the stroke where it's almost completely let out. I have bled it twice again since the new clutch.

This is driving me nuts now and I decided to play around with it some today. It was at one extreme and after pumping the pedal about 40 times it moved to the other extreme. Now, the first 1/3 of the pedal stroke is all free play. I inspected everything and the only sign of any leakage was a single wet spot on the line that runs down from the master to the slave, right where it bends back to follow the contour of the firewall. It does not appear to be cracked, but the master is bone dry, inside the engine compartment and inside the cab.

My guess is I'm finally due for a new clutch master? Anyone have reason to suspect the "new" slave or something else? The last time I bled it I was solo so I just let it gravity bleed. If I do go after the master cylinder, is there a special tool to disconnect the line from the slave, or should I just carefully use a screwdriver? ...or is it best to disconnect the line up at the master? It seems to go into a barb type fitting that rotates, but is held captive by a roll pin. Any idea what a new Motorcraft master cylinder runs?

Thanks! ( Likely JMC who replies. )

 

The proper way to bleed it is reverse bleed. Get a pump-style oil can, fill it with brake fluid, connect it to the bleeder screw, remove the cap and open the screw, and start pumping till air stops bubbling out of the reservoir.

I don't see any Motorcraft masters at rockauto.com, O'Reilly, or Autozone. If you want a genuine MC, call Tasca.

There is a special tool to disconnect the line from the slave.

http://www.autozone.com/fasteners/tr...ol/391364_0_0/

 

Thanks man. I'll prob. go ahead and try one from Advance Auto for a change. They have at least a 30% off coupon too.

Any reason to believe they can't be bled "normally"? I lost my factory service DVD, but I seem to recall mentioning gravity bleeding if working solo. I realize they are likelyreverse bled at the factory though.

 

This morning I'm back to having no slack in the clutch pedal and normal operation.

 

I ended up getting a Wagner replacement from Advance, it happens to be the cheapest option from Rock Auto which has the biggest selection, and the Wagner ended up being US made where as the original Motorcraft was made in France. I completely disassembled the original one and found no evidence of any internal leaking what so ever, but the new one has eliminated all of the issues I had with pedal slop, shifting engagement points, etc. I definitely think that the pedal needs to be depressed while bleeding though and not just gravity bleeding. It took a good while to bleed all of the air out.

 

Gravity bleeding does not work - the reverse method I posted is best.

 

tIf you can hold the piston in the compressed position with a c-clamp & a bolt (carriage bolt cut to the appropriate length works well), then you can bleed it as would your brakes. Just wrap the threads of the bolt with some electrical tape in order to avoid marring the cylinder bore.

 

???

 

My bad- was thinking of a different setup. Ford is still using the French style slaves mounted over the input shaft in the bell housing. I figured they might have switched to an externally mounted one with a fork that presses up against the throw-out bearing & spring fingers of the pressure plate.

If you don't have a pump for bleeding, you can rig something with an old bicycle inner tube. Cut off a section of the tube around the valve stem and use a hose clamp to seal the rubber around the reservoir. Hook up your bicycle pump to force the fluid down through the bleed valve.

 

Hey that's not a bad idea with the inner tube, might be a little tricky, but doable for sure. Thanks.