Ducatiman
New member
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2016
- Messages
- 41
- Points
- 10
Bit of info that might help others who encounter this issue.....
Driving the motorhome home last weekend and after a fairly long stretch of driving on cruise control turned it off to exit the motorway, foot on the clutch pedal to down shift for the slip road and it went straight to the floor! There was no lead up to this it just went.
I managed to pull over to the side and get up on the grass verge then called out the AA. He reckoned the slave cylinder had gone tits up but there was no sign of leaking fluid under the gearbox. Last time they recovered the motorhome they damaged the towbar as the guy doing the recovery didn't know how to get a vehicle with so much overhang onto the truck, so I decided to just drive the last 30 miles with no clutch.
When I got home I had a better look at it and found out that the clutch and brakes share a common reservoir, which sits on top of the brake master cylinder. The reservoir is designed to prioritise the brakes so the take off point inside for the clutch is higher up. The fluid level was about 2mm below the maximum level.
I took the pipe off the clutch master cylinder and it was bone dry so I carefully filled the reservoir up to just over the max level, as the vehicle does sit on a slightly sloped drive. Still no fluid at the end of the pipe! I put the pipe back on to the master cylinder then disconnected the reservoir end, attached a small funnel to the pipe and slowly filled the system up with brake fluid. Bled it out by disconnecting the pipe at he slave cylinder end and gradually got the pedal up to the correct height. Clutch worked fine!
As there is plenty of room under the bonnet at that point I bought a small reservoir from a race shop up the road, a new bit of pipe and rigged it up on a small bracket that fits neatly on to the web atop the coolant tank. Filled it up and bled it out again. Left it overnight to see if the level dropped and hey presto it is sorted.
It proves to me that the height positioning of the clutch fluid take off point in the original reservoir is to say the least a tad nominal, my drive is nowhere near as steep as some of the roads we encounter while travelling so it is inevitable that the top of the clutch pipe is at times open to the air.
My modification will allow me to monitor the clutch fluid level very easily and I can't see a downside to it.
Driving the motorhome home last weekend and after a fairly long stretch of driving on cruise control turned it off to exit the motorway, foot on the clutch pedal to down shift for the slip road and it went straight to the floor! There was no lead up to this it just went.
I managed to pull over to the side and get up on the grass verge then called out the AA. He reckoned the slave cylinder had gone tits up but there was no sign of leaking fluid under the gearbox. Last time they recovered the motorhome they damaged the towbar as the guy doing the recovery didn't know how to get a vehicle with so much overhang onto the truck, so I decided to just drive the last 30 miles with no clutch.
When I got home I had a better look at it and found out that the clutch and brakes share a common reservoir, which sits on top of the brake master cylinder. The reservoir is designed to prioritise the brakes so the take off point inside for the clutch is higher up. The fluid level was about 2mm below the maximum level.
I took the pipe off the clutch master cylinder and it was bone dry so I carefully filled the reservoir up to just over the max level, as the vehicle does sit on a slightly sloped drive. Still no fluid at the end of the pipe! I put the pipe back on to the master cylinder then disconnected the reservoir end, attached a small funnel to the pipe and slowly filled the system up with brake fluid. Bled it out by disconnecting the pipe at he slave cylinder end and gradually got the pedal up to the correct height. Clutch worked fine!
As there is plenty of room under the bonnet at that point I bought a small reservoir from a race shop up the road, a new bit of pipe and rigged it up on a small bracket that fits neatly on to the web atop the coolant tank. Filled it up and bled it out again. Left it overnight to see if the level dropped and hey presto it is sorted.
It proves to me that the height positioning of the clutch fluid take off point in the original reservoir is to say the least a tad nominal, my drive is nowhere near as steep as some of the roads we encounter while travelling so it is inevitable that the top of the clutch pipe is at times open to the air.
My modification will allow me to monitor the clutch fluid level very easily and I can't see a downside to it.
