My buddy and I probably spent 24 hours in the past 3 days trying to swap out an oem clutch in my '08. i know, we suck. But we were going extra slow and careful, and most of the time was spent breaking the harder to get to bolts. Anyway, yesterday I finally got the tranny mated and bolted back up. But while I was putting the clutch slave back in, the boot broke and a bit of fluid leaked out. I stupidly wiped it off and installed it anyway, and sure enough, after depressing the pedal, fluid came running out of the bottom vent of the bellhousing. So obviously I need to get a new clutch slave. My question is, after a while it completely stopped leaking no matter how many times the clutch pedal is depressed. Shouldn't fluid continue to come out if it's just the cylinder that's bad? Makes me think that the just replacing the cylinder won't fix the whole problem. Am I missing something here? Thanks for any advice.

 

Check your brake reservoir you probably drained the whole thing or it's sitting just below minimum level. Fill it up and I am sure it will start leaking again.

 

its the little round res beside the brake res or is that on my xj reguardless you need to replace the slave cylinder if it is leaking that bad, hopefully you didnt spray any fluid on your new clutch

 

No the brake reservoir is still pretty full. Confusing, I know.

 

Yeah I was looking for the clutch reservoir, but even if that emptied out, wouldn't it refell via the brake res eventually and continue to pump fluid to the slave? Man after all that effort I hope the clutch isn't contaminated. It was stationary the whole time (obviously) so I'm hoping all the fluid just hit the back of the clutch fork and drained down outta the bellhousing.

 

The clutch and brake circuits are separate and independent [or better be]. BTW, I hate hydraulic clutch systems. They don't feel or react naturally compared to a linkage. Give me a good ole linkage anyday.

 

Well I will be .....
sure as dog poop it comes out the right side of the brake res to the master then routes down to the slave. It may have a baffle for safety perposes, level get so low then stops feeding fluid? I should have popped the top to look.......

 

alright! it is baffled front from back and front and back from clutch, if you pop the top and look in you will see the bafflesso if its a little low she wont squirt from the clutch slave

 

Hmm, I didn't notice the baffles when checking fluid...not near the jeep now, but the fluid level was near the max line. How low does it look like the fluid needs to be to be cut off from the master? My other thought was that it was a line problem, but the entire process of leaking to not leaking occurred while the slave was bolted in, so I don't think that's the case. I know for sure the slave needs to be replaced, but will the new one even get fluid? I thought a failed master would at least leak?

 

First of all, kudos on replacing the clutch! I just did mine two weeks ago. PITA! But worth it.

The slave cylinder was likely on its way out and you finished it off by bumping it around when you dropped the transmission - didn't happen to me, but I was warned by a few folks to watch out for it.

Is there any reason you can't simply put in the new slave cylinder then follow the proper fill / bleed procedure and see if everything works as it should? At that point you'd find out whether you need to replace the master cylinder.

Also, before you start her up, pop the slave off and get a flashlight and mirror up into the bell housing hole to see where all of the oil went. The clutch is probably dry but it's worth a check.