What is a clutch slave cylinder?
The slave cylinder and master cylinder are main components in your clutch control system.
Why replace the clutch master cylinder?
When either the clutch slave or master cylinder starts to leak, the action of the clutch pedal will no longer be enough to release the clutch. You will no longer be able to change gear correctly without damaging the gearbox.
We chose to work on a Toyota Land Cruiser (Prado) series 90 for this tutorial.
Please note: At the end of this tutorial we used specific equipment to bleed the clutch system. However, it is perfectly possible to bleed the clutch system like the brake system.
The basic steps apply to most 4x4 makes and models.
TOOLS
To replace the clutch slave cylinder on your 4x4, you will need:
. 10 & 12mm flat spanners
. Ratchet spanner + 12mm socket
. A glass jar or transparent container to collect the clutch fluid
. A suitably long length of tubing
. Clutch fluid
DIFFICULTY
To give you an idea of the difficulty level of our tutorials, we rate them from 1 to 5.
Replacing the clutch slave cylinder on your 4x4 is a level 2 job.
WORKSHOP
1 - The clutch slave cylinder is located on the left side of the gearbox and is easily accessible from under the vehicle.
2 - The leak on this clutch slave cylinder is clearly visible.
3 - First step is to loosen the not that holds the pipe that supplies the clutch fluid using the 10mm spanner.
4 - Then use the 12mm spanner or ratchet to remove the 2 bolts that hold the slave cylinder onto the gearbox.
5 - The slave cylinder is no longer attached to the gearbox. All that remains is to release the pipe that supplies the clutch fluid by undoing the nut with your fingers.
6 - The new clutch slave cylinder freshly unpacked.
7 - Place the new slave cylinder into position and attach the bolts. We used a pneumatic wrench.
8 - Tighten up the nut that holds the pipe using the 10mm spanner.
9 - All that remains is to bleed the clutch circuit. Here we used a vacuum tool but you can apply the same method used for bleeding a brake circuit.
10 - We used a glass jar to catch the fluid during bleeding.
11 - Continue bleeding when the clutch fluid is this colour.
12 - The job is complete when the clutch fluid comes through clear like this. All the old fluid has been replaced with new fluid.
PARTS
Choose the right clutch slave cylinder for your 4x4:
Thanks to Association Sportive Mantaise for this article - blog.asm4x4.com
Please note: Euro4x4Parts publishes this information to help its customers but cannot be held responsible for the advice given here and practical consequences therin.
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Please note: Euro4x4parts publishes this information to help its customers, but cannot be held responsible for the advice given here and their consequences when used.