bruce988jl

iTrader: (56)

Car: 2004 Lancer Ralliart 5spd
Milage: 64000 Miles
Mods:
- RRM SRI
- Kartboy Underhood and shifter base bushings
- Lancer shop Authority Short Shifter
- Hawk HPS brake pads F/R
- Works Stage 2 clutch
- RRM downpipe (no cat.. yea i know so bad.. o well)

- RRM Catback exhaust (magnaflow series resonator and muffler)

- RRM Rear Swaybar, perches and mounts
- PDX Rear Lower Tie bar
- and some other things I always forget...



Problem: Well sunday morning came round and I went to drive my gf back to school. From the start of the drive I had a hard time getting into gear but she had to get back so I chanced it. I wound up getting stuck in second gear thankfully and managed to coast from red light to red light after dropping her off and on my way home. I just rolled up to my driveway and shut off my car, and popped it out of gear. Upon looking under the hood I checked the clutch lines, everything looked good except the Clutch Master Cylinder which was covered in brake fluid. Sooo it led to this How-to... I hope this helps you guys out.



Well just replaced the clutch master cylinder. Cost me about 100$ worth of parts from a buddy who works as a parts manager so he hooked it up as best he could.

Some suggestions when removing the setup:
- Take off the strut bar, air box if you have one and RRM SRI, if you have that. Also helps to disconnect the MAF cable. You'll want as much space since there is NO space the reach into the corner to access the Clutch Master Cylinder (dubbed CMC for this thread)
- Buy yourself a long 17mm box wrench or better yet a line/flare wrench for the banjo bolts. If you don't want to have to fiddle with a short one it helps with the long one to break the banjo bolt on the CMC loose.
- Buy yourself a small 12mm wrench and a 10mm flare wrench, the 12mm wrench is for the backside of the CMC under the dash, I couldn't get my sockets up there for some reason so yea. The 10mm flare is for the bleeder valve on the slave cylinder which you'll need for bleeding it.

How To:

Alright so I don't have photos, I'm sorry... But here goes:

Step one: Get EVERYTHING out of your way in that corner of the engine compartment. I'm talking remove the strut bar, intake box, intake pipes if you have any, because the more arm/elbow space you have the better.

Step two: Lay a sheet of cardboard down on the ground if you haven't already, brake fluid is some killer stuff and it does some damage on paint as well. I took a towel and just laid it on the fender as I worked, and a board underneath the car to catch most of the fluid.

Step two: Throw a pliers or a cable pinch on the rubber hose going from the brake fluid reservoir to the CMC to prevent liquid from coming out the other end. Now that your hose is pinched off, go ahead and take a pair of pliers to remove the clamp on the hose to the CMC and pull off the hose.
Note: My reservoir was empty upon removal of the lower hose, (I didn't think to pinch the cable but I got lucky) since the CMC had leaked out all the fluid. So I went ahead and pulled the entire cable off.

Step three: Take the 17mm wrench and slowly loosen the banjo bolt on the CMC side of the upper clutch line. Careful! There are two washers on the banjo bolt, one between the cable and the CMC, and one between the bolt and the cable. Pull that aside and now get ready to crank your back.
Note: I replaced my clutch line with an upper stainless steel one from an evo at the same time.

Step four: Go into the cabin and get onto your back under the dash. Look up behind the clutch pedal and there will be a brass piece (U-shaped) with a brass rod sticking out behind it that goes out through the firewall. This is part of the CMC, there is a big slip through pin being held in place with a cotter pin on the U-shaped brass piece. Pull out the cotter pin with a pair of needle nose or whatever you can get up there. It has a locking feature up on top so you'll have to take your finger and pry it open a bit before you can fully pull out the cotter pin. Now that both the cotter pin and slip through pin are loose, you can start removing the two nuts that hold the CMC onto the firewall. There are two 12mm nuts on either side (diagonally from each other) of the rod sticking through the firewall. If you look at the entire setup under there its basically two rings of nuts. The inner ring is smaller in diameter and consists of the two nuts for the CMC, the outer ring is for the clutch pedal removal.

Step Five: Now that the CMC is free of any connections and ties here is the hard part, removing it from that little h3ll hole of a space its hiding in. I don't know how I got mines out, or got the new one in... Just play with it, it took me about 20 minutes to get out, and at least 30 to get back in. (Granted I had buddies around and we were hanging out as well.

Step six: Now that its all empty up in that corner, you can take your new CMC and prep it for installation. Here's a trick that'll save you a lot of work. Take a string and tie it to the U-shaped feature that pushed through the firewall, it'll help to have when you're working the CMC back into its existing position.

Step seven: Take the gasket off the old CMC and place it on the new one (goes inbetween the firewall and the CMC), now start to wiggle the CMC back into the crevice it came from, but first feed the wire, rope, string, etc you tied to one end of it and push it through the firewall to the otherside. It helps to have someone on the otherside pulling and wiggling the end of it through the firewall as you slowly manipulate the mine field of solid wall guiding the CMC into its landing spot.

Step eight: Once the CMC is in place, now get the banjo bolt and clutch line ready for installation. For those with big hands, I’m not sure how you guys can do this, but I’m a small kid so I got in there with minimal trouble however manipulating the bolt so that I could start screwing it in sucked! Don’t forget that there is one washer inbetween the bolt and the clutch line, and then one between the clutch line and the CMC. Get that on there but don’t tighten it yet.

Step nine: Take the CMC and push/wiggle the unit into the firewall with hopes of getting more thread through the wall. It helps to have someone on the otherside to throw some nuts on there for you while you’re doing this. Before you tighten those nuts down go ahead and mount the u-shaped bracket back onto the clutch pedal assembly. Slip the pin through but don’t put the cotter pin on because you may or may not have to adjust it later on. Not you can go ahead and torque down the nuts holding the CMC to the firewall.

Step ten: Tighten down the banjo bolt on the engine side and throw the rubber hose back on with its respective hose clamp. Now go ahead and take off the pinch clamp on the hose.

Now for the fun part…

Step eleven: Bleeding... Two person job if you don’t have a speed bleeder. Fill up the brake fluid reservoir with Dot 3 brake fluid (For lancer Ralliarts or that’s what we take). Take a piece of cardboard and put it up against the fan of the car in front of the clutch slave cylinder on the tranny so that fluid doesn’t spray all over your fans and such. Get someone to sit inside the cabin and pump the clutch pedal a couple of times. Tell him/her to hold the pedal down, while you crack open the bleeder valve quickly letting the air out and closing it back up. Have him/her pump the clutch again and repeat the process. I had to do this about 15 times because I replaced my upper clutch line and tried to pull the restrictor out of the lower line but failed as I couldn’t get it apart.

Step 12: Turn on the car, and hold down the clutch and run through the gears with the clutch pedal down. If it feels like you have to force it into gears make a mental note about it. Also put the car into first gear and without hitting the gas get a feel as to how high the pedal has to be before the clutch starts to engage. Make a mental note of it as you do the following steps.

Take a 12mm wrench and loosen the black bolt on the backside of the u-shaped bracket holding the CMC to the pedal assembly. Once that is loosened pull out the brass pin holding the two parts together and do one of the following:

If your clutch is pressed down and it is hard to get into gears it means your clutch may or may not be fully dis-engaged, thus take the metal u-shaped bracket and turn it (if you’re looking at it from the driverside seat looking forward, counter clockwise. Basically you want to rotate it in a pattern that makes it move closer to the pedal, do the physics of it. Only rotate it two or three times, even three may be a bit too much. Put the pin back in and test the clutch again, if its still hard to get into gear you can try to rotate the adjuster again, but keep in mind of how high your clutch starts engaging. If its too high it might never fully engage.

If your clutch is too high as engagement then do the opposite as listed above however only rotate it one turn at a time, and retest it keeping in mind you should also perform the clutch down and run through the gears tests to make sure its fully dis-engaging.

Now with all of this done put the brass pin through the hole in the pedal and u-shaped bracket of the CMC, insert the cotter pin and make sure everything is tight under the hood and under the dash. Re-install all of your removed parts and check your brake fluid once more just in case.

Take it for a spin and get a feel for how well everything feels. Remember that to improve the life of your CMC and your slave cylinder periodic bleeding of the clutch hydraulic system is needed. Plus it’s a great workout on the guy pumping the clutch, especially if you have an aftermarket clutch, pressure plate, flywheel…

I hope this helps you guys out, sorry if I didn’t throw up any photo’s. I plan on ripping apart my old Clutch Master and my slave cylinder (I replaced it with my clutch) some time soon and will document it for future reference.

For questions or comments post or just shoot me a PM.
-Jason, Bruce, etc..

Special Thanks for Spins4 for the hookup so quickly, couldn’t have done it without your quick response on finding a master cylinder for me, all the members who made previous threads about this parts failure and other clutch hydraulic related concerns. My buddies who helped with the install and my trusty motorcycle to get me to the parts store.

Spins4

iTrader: (122)

No prob buddy, glad I could help

DangerousDan

iTrader: (8)

IIRC I had to put the slave modulator in a vise to get it open. either that, or I stepped/jumped on a pair of crescent wrenches angled properly. don't remember, but I do remember it not being very fun definitely try to get at it the next time you need to bleed, it's worth it(more than the upper line)