It sounds like the slave is over-extending....This could be several things, fork bent, wrong tob, pedal adjusted out too far, pivot ball wrong size, mounting loose....

I agree it is over extending, but it has a ring slave, no throw out fork, pivot ball and I don't believe there is any pedal adjustment to be made anywhere. I have personally examined all the parts and cannot find anything wrong or different with any of them! In my 30+ years of dirty fingers I have never encountered a clutch doing this before. Thanks for your thoughts, do you have any others??

John

Well I hate to say this, but, it would seem you missed something and need to start over...or dump the car...or pay somebody else to do it....

I agree, but we are the one's being paid to repair this witch!!! Just cannot seem to get this &$^&% under control!!

Never turn or resurface a fly wheel on a system that uses this type of actuator. They are designed to be replaced if defective. Other wise you get what your seeing. The old mechanical systems are more forgiving.

A few years ago I had a similar problem with a vehicle clutch problem. The engine had been replaced by the owners friend. When he tried to change gears after initial startup the clutch would no longer disengage the friction disc from the pressure plate/flywheel. I purchased the vehicle and after removing the transmission I found that there was no pilot bearing pressed into the end of the crankshaft. This bushing supports the input shaft of the transmission. It also keeps the friction disc centered within the flywheel/pressure plate assembly. After the first application of the clutch pedal the input shaft wobbled and the pressure plate came to rest on the thicker part of the friction disc and the clutch slave cylinder did not have the travel to disconnect the friction plate from the pressure plate/flywheel assembly. I believe the replacement engine came out of a vehicle with an automatic transmission that does not have the bushing because the torque converter is mounted differently. This might be worth looking into.

What a great problem and fix....well done....

Similar problem for me once. We had an F350 diesel with a manual transmission. The crew had fried the clutch, so I got to replace it. As a survival technique, I went for the biggest clutch that would fit. Well, that engine is used in some bigger International trucks. So I got the biggest clutch and bearing setup that was bolted to that size flywheel. But, because I was too lazy to resurface a flywheel that showed very little wear, I got screwed. The larger clutch disc would not release sufficiently because the flywheel was 15 thousandths less worn under the new disc. The transmission would not quite stop spinning when the clutch was released. And because I had ordered a metallic clutch disc, the wear in time was about a week.

Chalk it up to a learning experience.

Do you mean literally blows apart? That would take a helluva pressure.

And what are the symptoms? Does it fail to engage or fail to disengage? I'd guess the latter, but good to know.

Is the slave cylinder self-adjusting, so the piston can take up its own position in the cylinder (when the pedal released), gradually working its way back as the clutch disc wears?

As I understood, the cylinder was overextending, and the piston seals no longer remained in the cylinder.

These typs are usually self adjusting.

Make sure that you put the clutch plate the right way round. If you bolt on the pressure plate and the release "fingers' move in a lot the clutch linings might be too thick...I doubt this to be the case.

Jurie SA

Every vehicle I have replaced the clutch master cylinder on has had an adjustment on the pedal to adjust the free play. Have you checked to see if there is a small amount of free play to allow the piston to fully return because it sounds to me that the master cylinder piston is being held forward too much not allowing the fluid to return to the reservoir & just keeps pumping up the slave cylinder. If there is no adjustment on the pedal then I would try spacing the master cylinder out with shims to allow a small free play of the pedal. You should also find the push rod from the original master cylinder & compare it to the new push rod & make sure they are the same as I have had small differences in the push rod lengths causing me to have to adjust the pedal on vehicles in the past. Another thought I had is was there a spacer under the master cylinder that was not replaced when the new master cylinder was fitted as I have seen spacers under master cylinders when manufactures use the same cylinder on different model vehicles.

Check the volume of the master cylinder it may be larger that the volume of the slave (unlikely if the items are stock).

The other thing that was similar on the old mini minor clutch slave was if the rod entering the slave cylinder was too short it would not return the piston far enough into the slave to accommodated the volume of the master when depressed. ie: the returned position is not far enough down the slave and the seals would blowout when it it the stop ring.

To me these two these sound too similar and from SE's picture look very similar too.

This may not be anything, have you checked the pivot bushing at the top of the clutch pedal for excessive play or binding? This could possibly cause the over-travel in the hydraulic system. As far as changing the distance or overall travel from resurfacing the flywheel, unless someone cut way more off than needed, or the possibility of the clutch disk being installed backward, the hydraulic system is designed to and will compensate for the extra travel. We're only talking 10-15 thousands of an inch.

I've just finished redoing my brake hydraulics on my van, so I have oil on my mind. This may seem silly, but the exclamation points all over your input brings up a question. When I bled my brake system, I set up the system so that the pressure and volume of the oil, and the opening of the bleed valves could be changed incrementally. In other words, slowly and carefully. What happened when you did this? Did the oil exit the bleed screw valve? Did the return spring push the master back? I could have blown the wheel cylinders apart (working partially disassembled) if I hadn't been careful. So tell us how and what actually did happen in all (that is ALL) the boring details. It sounds like something is wrong. right?

What's the problem?

Bazzer