I took off from an intersection (normal acceleration), shifted into second (hammered it to redline), put in the clutch and......... that was that.

Clutch pedal never recovered. Pulled to the side of the road - decided to let it cool for a few minutes (as having read prev. experiences from the Board). While cooling, I looked under the car: clutch fluid all over the bottom of the car.

*sigh*

After letting it cool for 15 mins or so, pulled it up by hand, pushed it back down - no resistance. I could have done without seeing clutch fluid on the bottom of the car, though.

The slave cylinder just inside the driver's side wheel-well area is fine: no leaks. Same for the reservoir.

Looks that either the connection to the transmission went *blah* or the SS-braided clutch line burst/split. Won't know for sure until I put her up on the stands tonight. Odd that after 31k mi. of beating the hell out of it that it gives up like that.

 

the last line explains exerything "after beating the hell out of it for 31,000 miles"

 

You live in phoenix and it's summertime.

Maybe you boiled clutch fluid.

Should be a simple fix, get some higher temp fluid in there.

 

Newb responses such as these are reasons why the FI forums are scattered with OT subjects: to avoid retarded quips and seek thoughtful input

I think this is a bit more complicated than boiled fluid - prior to the incident there was no heavy acceleration or flogging. Previous tracking and having had the car survive last summer w/o incident leads me to believe something more significant occurred. Of course, I'll keep the fingers crossed for a boil-over, but I would think that would occur elsewhere in the system (e.g. reservoir).

Clutch pedal being stuck is a concern that a number of Z owners have experienced - MY concern are that none of the posts found describe fluid leaking from housing input itself.

If it is a boil-over - what are folks using for higher-resistant fluids?

 

I am not too familiar with how the clutch master/slave cylinders are linked but, I tend to think that there must have been a fluid line failure somewhere. I have never heard of boiling the clutch fluid since all it is responsible for is disengaging the clutch. Keep us posted and G/L.

 

I agree with teh215, if all the hydro fluid was on the ground then either the slave, master cylinder or line in between gave out.....should not be to difficult of a fix....

 

As I figured

Thanks for the affirmation - I'll have it up on stands and a clearer idea of what went wrong this evening (will post pics if it's anything of interest).

Its hard for me to get excited about replacing the clutch, though it needs it (56k stock clutch with my power output - something is bound to fail here soon).

I'll drag the gf out to the garage and have her hand-pump the clutch pedal while I'm underneath (great way to spend the weekend with 113º outside temps) to see where it's squirting.

 

keep us posted

 

Uh huh.

 

The SS clutch line provided by the APS ST kit burst;
when you pump the pedal it squirts right thru the braiding about ½-way up the hose.

Upgrade to a Mossy heat-wrapped SS line, I'm thinking?

 

I would at least let APS know. Either the line they used is not rated for the line pressure the clutch generates or there is another problem and the line is just the weakest link so it failed. Who knows, maybe they will replace it.

 

^true