How to rebuild a hydraulic clutch master cylinder

G'day Guys and Galls!

This is a tutorial on how to remove and replace or rebuild your hydraulic clutch master cylinder. I give you a thorough guide to help with removing, disassembling and rebuilding your hydraulic clutch master cylinder.

The Clutch pedal in my Landcruiser would stay on the floor after depressing the pedal and not return, There were no fluid leaks in the hydraulic system. I suspected air/contaminated fluid in the system so carried out a system bleed. After retesting, the issue still remained and I decided to take the next step and rebuild the master cylinder for the clutch system. The fluid was leaking past the seals in the cylinder and causing the clutch pedal to stay on the floor.

I also talk through the basic operation of the clutch pedal, master cylinder and slave cylinder. Using a rebuild kit supplied the spring, piston and circlip inside the master cylinder are all replaced. I show you how to bench bleed the master cylinder before fitting it back to the vehicle.

Also how to bleed the hydraulic system with new fluid.

Ensure any spilt brake fluid is cleaned off with water as soon as possible. Ensure you use the correct DOT rated brake fluid for your vehicle. Chock your wheels before working under your vehicle and always use rated jack stands, not just a jack!

If you have trouble bleeding the clutch it maybe necessary to suck fluid through the bleed nipple on the slave cylinder with a syringe and clear hose OR you can let the system gravity bleed out the air bubbles if you fill the reservoir and leave the vehicle over night the air bubbles will work there way out of the system through the reservoir.

The way i bench bled the cylinder isn't very effective and there are much better ways to do it, it wasn't actually necessary to bench bleed this system and would have been fine to leave this step out.

Hope this will help some of you to diagnose and fix clutch issues with your vehicles, Please like and Subscribe!

Cheers, Nicko!

[vedranjovic]

By far the best video I have seen on YouTube for this process. Thanks mate!

[pauloisidoro]

Probably one of the best explanation ever, God bless you !

[scottcoverley]

So when you re attach the line to the master I presume there is going to be some air in there which ultimately needs to get pushed thru the slave bleeder valve?

[ravenmcfly]

Fixing to try this on my tacoma, big help big thanks bro

[gregorylockhart]

Hey thanks for posting this video. Made my 96 F150 go smoothly.

[anfonybudrocket]

I gota say champ ya pissen in the wind there, without running a hone through the bore you may as well bye a complete new unit as you will be doing the job again my good man.

[rolandsboytv]

Your the best sharing to how to rebuild clutch master

[MatthewTaylorAu]

thanks for posting this.

I was expecting to see honing of the cylinder, just did my slave cylinder and it needed a hone due to visible internal damage. the bleed port on my slave was blocked and needed poking a fine wire through to unblock. compressed air would not clear it.

my parts guy tells me the clutch master piston is 15.87mm diameter on my VZJ95R toyota prado. all the brake hone kits I've seen nominate a minimum diameter of 19mm. (3/4") maybe that's why nobody(?) seems to have a video of honing a clutch master cylinder.

will have to see what I find during dissasembly and if my existing brake hone will fit. part of me says : don't bother trying to save $ vs time, just replace the whole clutch master.

just did my clutch slave : I found the lips on the piston rubber seals were hard to insert, the first lip required pushing the piston into the bore at an angle and working around to seat into the bore, the second lip was a pita to seat into the bore. felt like it needed something like a piston ring compressor to assist and avoid potential damage to the lip seals. maybe next time I'll cut up some plastic and makeshift a rubber seal compressor to assist inserting piston into bore.

dropping that idea for others to critique. maybe I'm overthinking it.

otherwise, great tutorial and thanks for posting.

[ironman_gee]

Really good video. Thanks alot for making this bud. 👍👍👍👍👍👍

[brumbybailey]

Wish I'd seen this before; I just had to replace this on my HJ45. Well now I know for next time. 👍

[Ro-ninm]

Not what i was after but still a good video mate well done

[betacam]

I've just stripped out a clutch mc which was totally seized, though almost new. It had spent 6 years in Javea in Spain with no use for most of that time.

It took me days to get the damned thing off as it was on a 1959 Berkeley T60 three wheeler with race prepared Mini 1275 S engine, and a one off motorsports chassis. I think they fitted the Willwood pedal box with the body off, so the access with it on is really very bad!

Anyway to cut to the chase, the problem was the red rubber grease they's put in to seal it up, before fitting the dust boot.

This had totally dried out, jamming the piston face and bore.

After (finally) getting it free with compressed air I cleard the bore and cleaned the piston with 1000 grit wet'n'dry wet with brake fluid.

It seems happy now, only of course the gremlins pinched the rod locking nut, and as I'm in France I will no doubt have a real pain finding something with the right thread...

Good video, glad to see I'm not the only one who gets brake fluid everywhere....I hope you missed the paintwork?

[ondraklima]

gj friend, saved my uneducated ass today

[Grandpasaab]

My clutch wont disengage fully, I noticed when I depress the clutch pedal the fluid in my resevouir lowers and when I release the pedal it raises again, does this mean my clutch master cylinder is bad?

[tenaciouspete]

Hey Nick, going to give this a go on the weekend, but I will be replacing the whole cylinder. Where is the nut you're loosening when doing the bleeding? and are you just bleeding it into a container ??

Also do you have a video for replacing the slave?

Great video, thanks for this!

[mattharrison]

What was the kit worth as opposed to a new cylinder?

[tropicalstorm]

I usually do the rebuild on the floor. It gives me better leverage and control.

[holoflat]

Nice up to after rebuilt done but looks better to bench bleed with finger over hole for the stroke return. Look elsewhere for bleeding tips.

[tigergetersas]

Mine fluid not enter cylinder, how to fix it? The rubber still new. It fail after 6 month used.

[rugermili]

Anyone not commenting on the low key zhanie in the bck ground is wild 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽❤️