I know there have been many discussions about the evils of doing this but I have been absolutely frustrated by my clutch release and became desperate enough to try this. Let me just say, it worked beautifully. I am not saying this is right, wrong, or anything else, but it worked for me.

Yesteday I called my local NAPA dealer and picked up a new clutch slave cylinder with a 13/16" bore (NAPA #37795) for $42.00 and tax.

I had installed a new clutch master, and new slave with a 15/16" bore about 3 months ago. I still was unable to get my clutch to release fully unless I had the pedal at the floor. This led to bleeding the system 20+ times to no avail. Actually I became quite good at it and can do a complete bleed in about 20 minutes, including removal and installation. This is why I decided to take the Isuzu route.

2 modifications were needed to make it work on my 2.8. First I had to remove the studs for mounting it on the 4cyl. and drill the holes out to 5/16". I did not have to move the holes as they lined up perfectly. Second I needed to shorten the actuator rod by 1". If I had left it at 5" it would have been too far into the cylinder for me to be comfortable with so I have cut it down to 4".

Once installed I had my wife push the clutch pedal to the floor and measure the maximum movement of the clutch arm. It now measures at approximately 1.1" no matter how far down the pedal is pushed. The angle of the camera is misleading as far as the acutal measurements. When in the out position I was unable to move enough to show the actual stroke but it went out to 1.1" from the start position. Here are the pics,

Clutch pedal at rest:


Clutch pedal at the floor:


I am not saying this is the way to go, but it has changed the way I now look at my car. I will post to this immediately if I run into any problems with this setup!

I'm in the process of converting an automatic car to a Getrag.
I'm painfully aware of all of the horror stories concerning Getrag hydraulics, and that is really my only misgiving concerning the entire swap.
If the Getrag slave proves to be problematic, I will be doing this same thing.

Thanks for posting. Added to favorites.

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 10-29-2006).]

Dude, remove/install for bleeding?

Gravity is your friend.

I've gotten to where I can bleed the clutch in about 10 mins. All you need is a steep driveway or hill that you can put the front end on. Set the front-left wheel significantly higher than the rest, open the system, and give it a minute or so to flow. I have a problem with a warped clutch that causes my system to need frequent bleedings (throwout arm vibrates enough to pull air into the slave. I have to bleed the system and tie the pedal aprox 1" down to be able to drive the car.) The hydraulics work fine once they are air-free. If you had issues after a good bleeding I'd also vote for the pedal being a problem.

While I have used them successfully, I believe the other methods of bleeding have way too much oportunity for air to be introduced to the system before the bleeder is closed.

Red 5spd Formula
Trot, the shifty, fox...

Actually, I only remove and install when changing the old master / slave to a different one, not every time LOL.... and you are very correct about gravity bleeding. I tried every other method including pushing the slave in once I had everything else bled. Gravity bleeding is the only way that I have ever been able to get a good system bleed. Thanks for pointing this out, I did forget that little detail in my post!

edit: I am now on day 3 of the Isuzu slave, and it is still working like I remember my new (bought one in 87) GT working. Like I said, If I have any issues I will post them here immediately.

[This message has been edited by railshot (edited 10-30-2006).]

Archie has an Archie'ism on how to bleed the Fiero system. You have to bleed the slave cylinder as well. Infact you can bleed the entire clutch just by continuingly bleeding the slave. Always had problems until I bled the slave. Then, never again.