Announcement

**tardis454** · January 15, 2011, 11:04 AM

Re: Hydraulic Clutch in 90 Chevy fullsize truck.

Stick with the stick, auto swap is a pita, & the NV3500's are pretty tough.
You can make a new line(I did this for my S-10, worked fine)
Get one from GM if they still have them(expensive as hell)
Or just buy one from Rockauto..for $43.

1990 CHEVROLET C1500 PICKUP 5.7L 350cid V8 Clutch Hydraulic Line | RockAuto

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,carcode,1031184,parttype,10745

RockAuto ships auto parts and body parts from over 300 manufacturers to customers' doors worldwide, all at warehouse prices. Easy to use parts catalog.

I had this issue with my S-10 & I made a line out of a few lines I had laying around.

**DanStokes** · January 15, 2011, 02:43 PM

Re: Hydraulic Clutch in 90 Chevy fullsize truck.

Lon - You can always find your local Parker-Hannifin or Swagelok dealer and buy the needed instrument line compression fittings. These are good for 2200 lbs and bust strength is WAY above that. These are NOT hardware store ferrule fittings. Then buy SS line and a little Teflon flex line where needed and you're there.

All that said, on my Beretta (the car not the gun) the whole deal blew apart and GM only serviced it as an assembled unit - slave, line, and master. It might have even come filled w/fluid but I'm not 100% on that. Anyhow, once I warmed up to the idea it was really a pretty easy and permanent repair.

Dan

**Lon_H** · January 15, 2011, 04:36 PM

Re: Hydraulic Clutch in 90 Chevy fullsize truck.

I'm going to look into the fittings, I'm sure the slave and master cylinders are ok. It's the hydraulic line that's giving me grief. I have bought 3 so far, one from Advance Auto Parts, another from LMC truck, and the other from Auto Zone, none of them had the same bends, and none of them routed down to the slave the same way.

I cant understand why the slave cylinder and clutch are on the passenger side of the trans.

**DanStokes** · January 15, 2011, 06:12 PM

Re: Hydraulic Clutch in 90 Chevy fullsize truck.

My God my typing sucks! I just fixed my post.

The P-H or Swagelock fittings aren't cheap but they REALLY work. Just don't overtighten them. They go pretty snug but not as tight as you can pull a wrench. They may have to order them but they can get adaptor fittings (metric to English) if needed. BTW - 5/16 and 8mm are interchangeable.

Dan

**SuperBuickGuy** · January 16, 2011, 09:27 AM

Re: Hydraulic Clutch in 90 Chevy fullsize truck.

I've had a lot of luck with hydraulic, and it's what I'm putting on my Buick (converting from slush box). The only issue I've had with hydraulic is if the line gets too close to the exhaust. Although, I'd never use hose clamps and line unless I was stuck in the boonies and needed to get home - then I'd replace it with brake line quality parts.

Replacing 4x seems excessive, what failed each time? Also, 4 hours for bleeding? clutches are the easiest system to bleed (in my experience) because you have gravity on your side. Fill the resevoir, open the bleed, then wait a couple hours... bleeds itself... worse case scenario, fill a .5 liter water bottle with fluid, run a hose from the bleeder to the bottle, fill the resevoir and pump the pedal a dozen times (until no bubbles in .5 liter bottle), close the valve and you're on your way..... z-bars, on the other hand - pop off occasionally, get jammed when the motor mounts are bad, and can simply drop off if not adjusted properly - in other words, not much of an improvement.

however, I'm not much of a fan of manual transmissions daily-driver pickups... too easy to spill coffee in your lap...

**SpiderGearsMan** · January 16, 2011, 10:10 AM

Re: Hydraulic Clutch in 90 Chevy fullsize truck.

but the slave/master from GM , no bleeding necessary , comes all in one piece

**SuperBuickGuy** · January 16, 2011, 08:29 PM

Re: Hydraulic Clutch in 90 Chevy fullsize truck.

Originally posted by SpiderGearsMan

but the slave/master from GM , no bleeding necessary , comes all in one piece

must be similar to the one I have for an IROC..

**Loren** · January 16, 2011, 09:11 PM

Re: Hydraulic Clutch in 90 Chevy fullsize truck.

I have an '88 which I converted from an auto to a stick...I have had a couple of issues with the hydraulic clutch deal.

BTW I'm guessing they put the slave cyl on the right so it would clear the driver-side front driveshatft for 4wd.

The factory plastic lines were OK until they got fried when the (aftermarket) plastic oil pressure guage line burst and the hot oil spillage caught fire. Brilliant. Replaced them with steel, with a rubber brake hose at the slave cyl. Had to make a couple of fittings for that. Bleeding? What a booger until it occured to me to REVERSE bleed, i.e. inject fluid under pressure into the slave cyl fitting, with the master cap off. Took five minutes...end of problem.

Then fluid loss became a problem. Leakage was past the master cyl seal into the interior of the truck. What a mess. With sawdust on the un-carpeted floor to absorb the leak, I kept adding brake fluid which is what I thought you were supposed to use. After going through three bottles of it, waiting to get the chance to replace the master, I finally just filled it with auto trans fluid because that's what I had and needed to get to work. Guess what? Hasn't leaked since. I never did replace anything. Hope your's isn't leaking under the carpet.

Here's another one. I cannot for the life of me figure out how this system is supposed to lift the throwout bearing off the clutch fingers so it will last. My first throwout was shot in 18 months. I pulled apart a setup at the junkyard that was ragged shards in what appeared to be a relatively recent overhaul so I'm guessing others have the problem as well. I rigged a spring setup on the clutch fork which pulls the throwout back a bit on clutch release and that solved it. Any comments from a GM tech on that, are welcome...I can't imagine how that was supposed to work. Anyone wants info on my spring "thing", I will provide.

**SpiderGearsMan** · January 16, 2011, 09:35 PM

Re: Hydraulic Clutch in 90 Chevy fullsize truck.

dual mass flywheel , pull clutch
noisemaker , I was changing a lot of those in 97-98
corvettes too , noisy

not too many manual trucks anymore , too many clutch problems

**SuperBuickGuy** · January 17, 2011, 08:05 AM

Re: Hydraulic Clutch in 90 Chevy fullsize truck.

Originally posted by SpiderGearsMan

dual mass flywheel , pull clutch
noisemaker , I was changing a lot of those in 97-98
corvettes too , noisy

not too many manual trucks anymore , too many clutch problems

hijack

I was considering switching to a 5 speed in my diesel from the 700r4 - it sounds like that would be a bad idea?

**Loren** · January 17, 2011, 08:20 AM

Re: Hydraulic Clutch in 90 Chevy fullsize truck.

It's a push type.

My '88 had gone through four 700R4s (in 300k) when I got it (disassembled and cheap) with another "fresh" one sitting in the bed, which I traded off. I hear newer ones were better.

**SpiderGearsMan** · January 17, 2011, 10:05 AM

Re: Hydraulic Clutch in 90 Chevy fullsize truck.

all of the diesels I saw all had 400 or 4L80e , even the tahoes

**Lon_H** · January 17, 2011, 11:47 AM

Re: Hydraulic Clutch in 90 Chevy fullsize truck.

"Replacing 4x seems excessive, what failed each time? Also, 4 hours for bleeding? "

Yeah I think 4 times is very excessive. Each time, I had the same problem, no pedal pressure, so I started up top, with the master cylinder, it would be leaky, or wouldnt push fluid, then the line would crack or develop a leak, then the slave cylinder wouldnt push the clutch fork.

Bleeding this system is a P.I.T.A. the line comes out of the bottom of the master cylinder, loops under the steering column, up over the back of the engine, down to the slave cylinder. And I'm doing it by myself, with a vacuum bleeder and without a vacuum bleeder. In my opinion it should go out under the engine, following the brake line, at least then it wouldnt have so many uphills.

I have been driving the truck all weekend and the pedal has a reached a point where it's spongy, but not getting worse, and I'm not losing any fluid.

**Tazracing** · January 17, 2011, 11:56 AM

Re: Hydraulic Clutch in 90 Chevy fullsize truck.

how close is the exhaust to that line and slave?

Announcement

Hydraulic Clutch in 90 Chevy fullsize truck.

Hydraulic Clutch in 90 Chevy fullsize truck.

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment