Cant shift into gear/ Master clutch cylinder?
 

Hey all, I am scratching me head over here.

So I started my car after having it sit for a while during the lockdown. I depress the clutch and start it. Runs fine, everything is good. I try to shift into gear... and i cant. Engine bogs down a bit but just cant get it into gear.

I turn off the car. and the stick goes into every position smoothly without a hitch. So i pump my clutch a bit, and I cant remember but it think it felt softer. still no luck. Car moves in gears forward and reverse fine, because i got it up on ramps right now. But in the sequence of car off, shift, car on, move. car off, shift and so on.

So i ordered both a master and a slave. So far I replaced the slave. Got it on, and i cant bleed the damn thing. No fluid is coming out at all. I used a brake bleeder to suck the air through the valve. Not going at all. Pumped the clutch, nothing, no fluid is going down. Even pumped the slave and undid the valve simultaneously, still no fluid coming out.

My guess is there is something up with the master, that's not allowing for suction. Clutch pedal has no resistance now at all. no pressure at all. Thoughts?

Is your brake resivoir filled up? The slave is gravity fed from there. The hose in the back goes straight to the top of slave. Sound's like something is wrong in that process. Clogged or leak.

That's exactly what happened... I figured it out yesterday as I was working on it. I have a sloped driveway, and with the ramps the car was still pointing downward a bit, enough to not have the fluid in the reservoir be at junction where the clutch master connects. When I saw this I pretty much ran in topped it up all the way to the brim, and started the bleeding process. What a sigh of relief! Now. What i also realized with this was, since my car was parked on a sloped driveway, the hydraulic fluid was slowly draining into the half empty reservoir, not allowing for enough fluid in the master/allowing air to get in. So i probably didn't even need a new slave or master. At least i'll have some piece of mind that those wont go. Thanks again for your support!

Yes I think it’s been posted here before- clutch is is be-otch to bleed. Car needs to be nose-up but even then, you have to wait for the last bit to work out over time.

Yeah, I don't understand why the reservoir outlet to the master clutch is placed so high up and in the back.

Once I got the fluid in though, using a Harbor Freight Brake bleeder made the job suuuuper easy. Just crack the valve open, and apply vacuum, squeeze slave while bleeding, then as the fluid starts running clear/no bubbles, screw valve shut, release slave, and good to go.

Absolutely no mess, and once installed, the clutch was really nice and stiff. Much better pedal feel..., bled the brakes same way just to pull all the nasties out (once I pulled out the majority through the reservoir of course, don't want to be pulling debris into the brake lines).

Thanks for the support!

Yep. Many brake fluid swaps over the years...

Some guys swap between brands so they can see the color change.

When I replaced the lines I had to take the plunger deal out of the bellhousing and turn the nipple up in order to get all the air bled.