Grand vitara clutch woes.

[Husky]

hi guys, i pickup up a grand vitara last week, its a 2000 reg 2.5 v6 manual and the clutch was very spongey and on the floor, so it is hard to get into gear when running as the clutch is always dragging the guy gave me a new master cylinder for it as his mechanic friend had told him this was the problem, after fitting the new master the clutch is exactly the same, the old cylinder was leaking slightly but the slave is bone dry so i bled the system a couple of times and its still the same, im just wondering is there any specific way to bleed these? i have been bleeding it the same way as bleeding brakes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers, Dave.

[twiss]

If its similar to my mx5 clutch (probably... master, slave, pipe) I would just replace both cylinders at the same time.
My slave went... and the pedal was spongy and wouldn't engage the clutch. So replaced the slave and then the master went shortly afterwards.
I believe that usually when the slave goes it lets air in and goes spongy, but normally when the master goes it pisses the fluid out everywhere
Bleeding method is correct too, but don't expect it to come out quickly! The mazda one took about an hour to get a few tablespoons of fluid through
You can use a gunsons type brake bleeder if you can find the right cap attachment, and it makes it much quicker

[Anton]

You can use a gunsons type brake bleeder if you can find the right cap attachment, and it makes it much quicker

I made a cap for my kit because none of the standard ones fit my SJ brake fluid cap. Wasn't difficult, I made it out of wood, with a bit of rubber to make it seal, and clamped it to my brake master cylinder with a G clamp.

I'd have thought you could do the same with a clutch master cylinder?

[Husky]

Cheers for the input, i thought it may be an issue with the slave but every time ive had a bad slave they have allways leaked around the shaft, ive gone and ordered a new slave so fingers crossed should sort my issues.

[Husky]

ok so new clutch slave came, fitted and bled with a big syringe, clutch still shite and still wont go into gear so at this point im thinking its got to be the pressure plate or release bearing worn, so i had a tinker with the pedal see if there was any adjustment on the clevis and noticed after pushing the pedal down that it was not pushing the piston correctly on the master cylinder, after a lot of fiddling, cursing and sore knuckles i had the clutch pedal off and the bolt that goes through it which is also the pivot shaft was badly bent, ive straightened it back the best i could and its now perfect just need to get a new bolt tomorrow and all will be good.

[Anton]

[twiss]

Check the old slave to see if it binds... something must have got stuck for it to bend... so if the cause is still there it may bend again!

[Husky]

Check the old slave to see if it binds... something must have got stuck for it to bend... so if the cause is still there it may bend again!

old one seems fine its in the bin now though, i think whats happened is the nut on the end has come loose and has allowed some float where its usually clamped tightly up against the pedal mounts and its allowed it to bend, its only 10mm so not that strong in the first place, ill be replacing it with a hardened fastener tomorrow

[Dave09]

Similar prob with mine, 2004 gv 2.0 16 valve, First move was replace the slave, slight improvement, don't think its the clutch, no slip on high revs in 1st gear, stalls straight away, master cylinder change next, n see what happens. perhaps changing all flexible pipes when changing the master will help. Any input appreciated.
Cheers Guys
Dave