Interesting page on hydraulic clutch maintenance

[Rich Z]

Found this will looking for something else. Pretty good read....

http://www.rangeracceleration.com/Clutch_Care.html

[Rich Z]

Well, today I went out and bought some brake fluid and a syringe, and decided to try this out. Sure enough, the fluid in the clutch reservoir was black as coal. So I drew it out and refilled it several times until it was pretty much clear. I tried the clutch peddle thing but it really didn't seem to make any difference in the clarity of the fluid.

Another thing that puzzled me is that the diaphragm mentioned in the writeup is really not attached to the cap in my instance. It was just sitting loose in the fluid. So I'm not sure what is going on. Should this be the case? Should the diaphragm have fluid in it or be dry inside? When I first looked at it, there was fluid in there.

The cap says something like "fill to lip" and I'm not sure what that means. Lip of what? If it's the lip of the reservoir without the diaphragm in place, putting in that diaphragm after filling will of course spill the brake fluid all over the place.

The fluid is clear now, but I'm not sure about that diaphragm thing. I put some fluid in it, but it doesn't make sense to me that way....

So I'm a little puzzled about what is going on...........

[Rich Z]

Well, the word I got is that there should be NO fluid in that diaphragm cup at all. So I drained the brake fluid I had put into it before taking a drive today. I'll check it all tomorrow and maybe drain the reservoir again and put in fresh fluid. I guess I may have to do this several times before it stays clear. At least I'm guessing that eventually it will stay clear. I heard someone say that they thought the black coloration may just be the color leeching from that black rubber diaphragm cup. I can't see how that could happen too long before the cup would disintegrate or just turn clear. But it's as easy as falling off a log to do, so what the heck.....

[cwbeachbum]

Originally Posted by Rich Z

Found this will looking for something else. Pretty good read....

http://www.rangeracceleration.com/Clutch_Care.html

Hi Rich Z, I tried the clutch fluid change shown on the site you displayed and can feel the difference. My fluid was black like coal oil. Still have problems sometimes getting into first gear smoothly. I used the dot 3 fluid recommended in my owners manual but was wondering if it is okay to mix synthetic dot 4 with dot 3? I was going to do the fluid exchange again using dot 4 but don't want to destroy anything. thanks In advance. Phil

[Rich Z]

Seems to me I read that DOT3 and DOT4 are compatible, but NOT DOT5. But I'm not expert, so check it out.

BTW, try replacing your transmission fluid with Royal Purple. I did this a little while back and it made a SUBSTANTIAL difference in manual gear changes....