Master cylinder? Slave? Or clutch??

[bigblue]

Can anyone tell me if I should look into the Master or slave cylinder, apposed to the clutch itself. Here are my symptoms.
After letting my 61 apache sit over the winter, I noticed that the clutch peddle felt different. I noticed that the peddle had to be fully depressed to the floor, in order to get into gear. That was ok for a short while. But while out on a little cruise one sunny day, I was suddenly unable to get the truck into gear. I have a parade next week, and Im afraid I will miss it unless I can come up with an easy fix. Can someone please tell me the most likely cause for this symptom.

Thank you

Bigblue.

 

[ddsmith]

BigBlue,
Excuse my ignorance of your specific truck but my 66 C-30 is a mechanical clutch. I don't think hydraulic clutches were used on 61 trucks. I could be wrong. You may have retrofitted the hydraulic clutch so I'll answer it from that angle. If you do have a slave cylinder for your clutch it should have a bleeder screw on it like the brake cylinders. You bleed this in a similar fashion to brake lines. Ensure fluid is adequate in the reservior and have an assistant press down on the clutch peddle, have them hold it all the way in and crack open the bleeder screw, then shut the bleeder and have the assistant release the brake peddle. Continue this until a solid stream of fluid flows then close the bleeder screw for the last time and have the assistant press the clutch peddle while you observe the fork movement. Now on to some other possibilities. If you have a mechanical clutch inspect the clutch linkage to ensure it is working properly. If it all checks out good then I would suspect that the clutch fingers are not being pushed in all the way by the throw-out bearing. I had one of these fingers break on a 1984 camaro and I couldn't shift the car because the clutch wouldn't fully release. Hope this helps.

Don

 

[Rick]

Well in 61 they had hydraulic clutches big blue that is the right way to bleed a clutch sounds like that should fix your promlem thanks for the help Don

Rick Bradley
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1.816.741.8029 ext. 500