I got this truck this week. The clutch seemed ok. The last few days I noticed I would have to pump it up after it sat. Today I would have to pump it often when I was driving it. I thought it just needed bled so I sprayed some PB Blaster on the bleeder screw.

So I just went on a little run and now the clutch won't pump up. It's out I would say. I had to drive it home in second gear.

What am I looking at here. A slave cylinder, master, both maybe. Or could I still just bleed it. I don't see any fluid leaking anywhere and the master is full.

Please advise. Thanks

 

Chances are just one of them are bad but changing both is good practice. Based on your description it's most likely a bad master. A bad slave causing those symptoms is almost guaranteed to leak externally where a master can leak internally.

 

Aisin is the OE manufacture. Right?

I can get the parts from rockauto.com for super cheap. Too cheap really. Makes me think they are reman or something. Other places are much higher.

You guys ever got these parts from rockauto.com.

 

Rock auto is fine, their shipping charges usually make up the price difference.

 

Aisin is the brand you want. I just replaced both master and slave last week, not difficult at all. Clutch is working excellent now. (1988 PU, 3vze)

 

I just placed the order with rockauto. The master was $19, the slave was $13, and $7.99 for the shipping. Grand total of $40. That's less than some places sell just one of the parts for,,,lol.

You guys ever run the blue brake fluid. I seen video of a guy using it. Seems like a good idea if it's the same price. I think it might be dot 4 synthetic. Will that be ok.

 

I've always had good results ordering from rockauto. I believe that the spec for your vehicle is DOT 3 brake fluid for the clutch. It should say on the master cyl cap.

 

Dot 3-4 to my knowledge are only different in temp rating. I yuse Dot 4, just don’t use Dot 5.

never heard of the blue stuff time to google.

 

Some quick google-fu.... seems the big advantage for us is if you alternate between the blue and gold ATE to make fluid swapping easy to tell when system is flushed. Otherwise don’t see any advantage. Another place said it was no illegal in US due to some old law that dictates color of brake fluid. Otherwise you choice and Continental is a reputable manufacturer if you’re talking of ATE.

 

Yeah there's really no added benefit to different fluids for a clutch. Dot 4 is good for brakes due to the amount of heat it endures but the clutch hydraulics will stay pretty cold other than lines running near exhaust and such. As stated before, stay away from Dot 5. we have a bunch of purple Dot 5 for the mail trucks at work. Every now and then somebody will put Dot 3 in them and we'll end up having to replace a most of the brake components and flush the system.

 

I know you already ordered, but X2 on getting the Aisin slave and master. I did my clutch not too long ago(89 p/u 4x4 200k) and somehow I managed to get mixed up and even though I ordered the OEM clutch parts I ordered some random slave and master. The result was the exact symptoms you described. Once I replaced them with the Aisin parts and bled them, I was back in business. I learned the hard way. Had I looked through these forums prior to that experience, I would have known that. Enjoy the new parts!

 

Aisin is the best and like was mentioned, the prices are very good with a little on line shopping. Brake fluid is hard on the seals and eventually even an Aisin will fail. I just change both the master and slave cylinders at the same time. Usually after you just change one, it is only a matter of time before the other will fail. Before you lost pressure, if everything was working fine, your clutch is most likely still in great shape.