Car: '78 99 Turbo, Manual transmission

I've got the clutch back together, but it's not working. It felt a bit
odd before I pulled the engine, now it doesn't work at all.

When I bleed the clutch, I can feel, _sometimes_, that I get a good
resistance to the pedal like it's pushing fluid through, and it comes
out the slave cylinder end as expected. But, usually, the pedal goes
right to the floor with _zero_ resistance. When that happens, the fluid
gets pulled back from the slave cyl to refill the master, rather than
from the reservoir as expected. I think.

Questions: does this sound like master cylinder problems as I think?
If so, could it be just a gummy hose between the reservoir and the
master, or is this a master cyl rebuild thing? It's odd that the
clutch worked before I took out the b0rken engine, but it did feel
strange so it might have been "mostly dead" at that time.

Suggestions? Comments? Ideas? I assume this master cyl. rebuild is
done from inside the car, yes?

Dave Hinz

Dave Hinz wrote:

Very likely.


Eh? I'm confused. My 99 (1978 Combi Turbo, the only 99 I ever worked on)
had an integrated reservoir built into the master. Is this not the case
with yours?


--
Grunff

On Mon, 08 Nov 2004 17:12:06 +0000, Grunff <grunff (AT) ixxa (DOT) com> wrote:
Yes, with a "yes, but". See below:

Yes, this is a 3-door (Combi). It has vacuum-assisted brakes, and the clutch
slave cylinder looks very much like the one on my Sonetts - just the cylinder
lengthwise, a pipe on the top going forwards, rubber hose clamped to the
forwards-going pipe, that hose goes up to the bottom of the brake fluid
reservoir which sits on top of the brake M/C, which is on the front of the
vacuum servo. It looks like this:
http://www.eeuroparts.com/images/dia...c900clutch.gif

I wonder if that hose (to the reservoir) is gummed up inside, which would
restrict it from getting fluid to the M/C. Reason I think this is when I
open the bleeder nipple and apply pressure at the reservoir, _nothing_
comes out. Should it at that point (I'm thinking yes)? Also, the
turkey-baster method doesn't work on this car, which implies something
is blocking flow in _that_ direction as well.

I took the slave cyl. out of the system, hooked my siphon hose to the end
of the clutch hydraulic line, and behavior was the same (pulls back as
I raise the pedal, almost always). So we're not pulling from the reservoir,
either because the MC is bad, or the hose is plugged. Any guesses? The
rebuild kit and the hose are about the same cost and not much different
in screwing-around to get at. (can't _see_, but can reach, the
hose on the m/c.)

Dave

if you are power bleeding the system it might be that there is blockage in
the line, but reading your question, you don't say if you are trying the
clutch pedal at the same time as the bleed. i know from recent bitter
experience that when my 9000 clutch went, it sounds very similar to the
problems you are experiencing. if the 9000 system was designed from a
previous version (eg a 99 system), you might want to try this first before
you get hammered for an expensive repair.

see the link below & have a look near the bottom of the page, it seems to
say that you need to try the clutch pedal during bleeding,

http://www.thesaabsite.com/900old/c900clutchrepair.htm

hth

kds :-)

"Dave Hinz" <DaveHinz (AT) spamcop (DOT) net> wrote

Dave Hinz wrote:

How odd!


Yes, fluid should come out of the nipple when you apply pressure.


I'll buy that.


Could be the line, or could be the MC. I'd strip down the MC - doesn't
take that long, and at least you'll know exactly what's wrong.


--
Grunff

king doodle squat wrote:
No, the part about depressing the clutch (2nd sentence below) is in
regard to extracting the clutch disk alignment tool. The bleeding is
covered in the prior sentence only:

"BLEED THE SYSTEM: Bleeding is best achieved by applying a positive
pressure where you put the brake fluid in while slightly opening the
bleeder nipple. Now push the clutch pedal all the way down by what ever
means you used previously and EXTRACT THE SPECIAL TOOL. "

-Fred W