Clutch pressure problem

did you bench bleed the master?
did you vacuum bleed the clutch?

I did bench bleed the master. What is vcauum bleeding the clutch?

I use a 'Mity-vac', it's a hand operated vacuum pump. put it on the slave bleed screw nipple ans it will suck fluid through the line, removing any air.
Just make sure you keep fluid in the reservoir and pump until you get no bubbles.
It's a one man job, done it when I did my clutch system. takes about 5-10 min.

Thanks! I just looked them up. I am headed out to get one now. I will let you know how it comes out. Do you think the problem was air in the system? The clutch was really hard, not spongy and the pressure caused the brake fluid to actually cut a channel into the rubber piston seal creating an internal leak.

does the clutch reles as it should when the pedal is depressed?
I suppose (usually a mistake on my part) there could be a mismatch in master cylinder volume and the slave requirement causing the slave to bottom out and the master internal pressure causing the internal blowby.
you need someone smarter tan me on this one.

Doesn't sound like an air problem.

Could it be a be a crushed or kinked pipe underneath the car?

Will the slave move if you disconnect the slave from the clutch lever?

Do the master and slave cylinders work smoothly when not connected to the car?

You should be able to move the piston by hand(be careful not to squirt fluid in your eye or on your car)

If these all seem to work separately I suggest
you get a short pipe made up (about a foot) that you can use to connect the master to the slave. Then see if you can operate the master by hand to move the slave.

Thanks for all the information guys. I grabbed a vacuum belleder last night and am ready to get started tonight on vacuum bleeding. I was able to press the clutch master on its own and verified it moves smoothly. The slave works when not connected as well. I grabbed me big shop light and crawled around under the car and checked out the entire hard line. There are no kinks or anything under there. I am surprised at how nice it looks! Since my car is a restoration I had nothing to go on for the clutch master cylinder to clutch pedal assembly adjustment. I read the directions for the slave adjustment on Panteraplace and had a couple of local Pantera guys verify it for me. I think that part is fine. How do i go about setting up the clutch master cylinder to pedal adjustment? Maybe it is that the slave is bottoming out and there is still clutch pedal travel causing excessive master cylinder pressure? The fact that the slave works slowly still suggests a kink as Rapier stated but I can't find one.

I guess it could also be a problem with the end of the pipe, perhaps the way it was flared or the fitting itself.

That's a great point. I will check the flare and the connection when I get home from the office. I can see how it would be easy to get a slight mismatch between the line and the fitting from the master cylinder. Too much would cause threading problems but a small mismatch would constrict the flow and cause these problems without cross thread troubles.

Went threw this, The Master supplies just enough volume to disengage the clutch.
If the stop at the slave is not adjusted just right, and allows the throw out bearing to move way away from the clutch disc, the stroke at the Master is not enough to continue to disengage the clutch because the volume of the fluid was wasted moving the throwout bearing to the clutch,
Hope this make's sense.

Mark

I get that. I have a lot of play between the TO bearing and the clutch. How much or how little do I need?

I believe its 3/4" Travel at slave.

I will admit I am climbing in this issue at mid-point, but is the spline clutch arm (mounted on the ZF itself) in the correct position? A spline or two in the forward direction could cause the described issues..............or am I wrong?

ParaPantera thats a good point!
when all the parts are removed and then reassembled if they were not matched, then you will have to use trail and error on positioning the arm, lenght of rod & contact with the throwout bearing to find the "happy spot" were every thing works together properly.

Mark

Ok this is really strange. Apparently there was some foreign material in the system somewhere. I started pulling the entire system apart Friday night. I knew the master cylinder was fine because it is new. So, I moved to the point that the hard line meets the clutch master. The connection looked good. Then I went to the point where the copper line meets the hard line. I checked again for any kinks... Nothing. I pulled the two lines apart. There was brake fluid dripping out from the copper line. I filled the master and vacuum bled the system to that point. There was plenty of fluid flowing. No problem there... Moving on... I pulled off the steel braided soft line and put the vaccum pump on that for grins. There was nothing coming through it. The soft line was blocked! I fired up the compressor and blew air through the line in increasing pressures but was never able to clear the blockage. I had to cut the end off of the line to find the blockage and I was able to clear it at that point. I went to the local speed shop on Saturday and had a new end put on the hose. I then completely disassembled the rest of the system and completely flushed it. Nothing else was in there. It looked like fine grains of sand in the clutch line!? What the? Anyway, I put it all back together, bled the clutch and everything is beautiful now! The car shifts perfectly and the clutch feels great! Thanks for all the help guys!

great news. glad you gotter done.