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Replace master cylinder clutch

206K views 157 replies 66 participants last post by  luing 
#1 ·
Well i just replaced my master cylinder clutch and would have loved for more indepth information and some pictures. So here are pictues and step by step information to go along with it.

1. First of this will be alot easier if you take out your front drive seat. Unplug battery as well.



2. start by removing the panal under your steering wheel.



3. Remove Hood release cable and your diagnostic cable.



4. You are going to need to remove your starter safty switch (black)



5. Continue by removing these 3 things
1- Speed control deactivation switch (Green) Turn left and lift small clip.
2- Stop lamp switch (Grey) turn right and lift clip
3- Clutch Position Switch (Red) turn left and lift clip.
They do not need to come off in any order what ever is easiest for you. When removed you will need to put these cables in a safe spot. I put them up by my steering wheel.



6. You will now need to remove both bolts that hold your master cylinder clutch in place. they are 10mm. (note do not pull master cylinder clutch out of compartment until you have drained most of your fluid out so you dont get a pond in your car.



7. after you take those bolts out you will now take off your clutch pedal and spring. (in picture the master cylinder is still on there)



8. You will now remove the pedal assembly so when you put your master clutch cylinder back on you do not snap the white rod like i did :/. There are 4 bolts.



9. In the engine compartment you are going to need to take out your battery and move your fuse box a little atleast i did on my 2004 focus.



10. Drain your clutch/brake fluid. you can use a turkey baster in this occasion.



11. When your fuse box is out of the way you will be able to see where the green rods come through into your engine bay as seen below.



12.There are small butterfly clips on the green parts you can use a small ice pick in order for you to get them out easily. be careful not to loose them there are new ones with your new part but its nice to know you have an extra one if you happen to loose one. (cover the lines with paper towel you do not want to get dirt in them!)



13. Now remove previous clutch master cylinder and install the new one in the previous order. connect all the lines and refill brake/ clutch fluid. Use dot 3 brake fluid. picked it up for about 5 bucks at my local autozone.

14. Heres the rough part it took me a good 45 minutes to find the bleed plug for my clutch you are going to need to bleed your clutch, and maybe your breaks. I did not need to bleed my brakes i left just enough in the reservoir to not need to do that.



You will need to pump your clutch multiple times. YOU WILL NEED TO PEOPLE to bleed your clutch and or brakes.

Goodluck! [ffrocks]
 
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#59 ·
I am going to have to do mine, it started leaking. Thanks for the great post and the pics are great!! I will need to get me a mighty vac though! LOL AWESOME post!
 
#62 ·
Glazing over the thread I saw some people have issues with vacuum bleeding....

The factory manual (at least for the SVT) recommends a pressure bleed where fluid is removed from the resevoir and forced up through the system from the bleeder. Considering the difficulty in bleeding a slave cylinder that is also a throwout bearing I'd consider it a necessary practice to bleed the clutch in this manner.
 
#64 ·
You used a syringe to "pressure bleed" it, right?

A conventional bleed (like brakes) OR a pressure bleed seems to be the key to burping these clutch systems. There are several cases of unsucessful vacuum bleeding on this board
 
#66 ·
thanksabuncha

Wow guys, thanks for all the comments and support. Those pics are awesome. Hope you can get it into the archive.

Husband finished the job today, I think it took him about 6 hours total. But 2 of those hours were trying to figure out how to get those clips off. With the info I gave him from this site, it was just minutes later he had them off. He didn't fold back the wheel well cover but thought about it. Managed to do it without.

Just a comment, the Ford dealer wanted $127 for the part and a 3 day wait. But CarQuest had it in stock for $65.

My car has 93K on it. Had to have the power steering sensor and pump done about 500 miles ago. Also replaced the front right axle at about 80K.

I'll be reading on this site for more ideas. I might want to tune it up a little, make it go faster?

Thanks again. [ffrocks]
 
#67 ·
Many thanks to those posting all the info.

Son and I did this over the weekend on a 2003 ZX3 - not too bad. It was his first car repair project other than really simple stuff so he got a taste of how this stuff goes. Probably 3 to 4 hours and that included a trip to AutoZone for torx bit to remove the seat bolts and a new valve cover gasket as we noticed that was leaking once we got started.

We found removing the wheel liners for access wasnt much help in our case - we did fine removing the air box/battery box which had to come out anyway to bleed the thing.

Putting the pins back into the new master cylinder after the lines were inserted was impossible we discovered. We probably wasted at least 30 mins before we put the pins in first and then inserted the lines until they clicked into place. Doh.

We bled with a mityvac and then finished off doing it manually. We went through a lot of fluid like everyone says.

Not a difficult project but sort of a pain due to the cramped quarters and tight spaces.

We're new to the Ford Focus having only had the car for a month and it was intended as my son's, but I have to say I really love this little car a lot.
 
#69 ·
Moving the Fuse Box

Thank you for the guide, it is excellent. However, I am having a problem and judging by the lack of comments regarding it, this problem may be unique to me. I have gotten to the step where the fuse box needs to be moved and I have spent the last hour trying to move it with no success. I have cut the tape and the zip tie off the wires, removed all the fuses and relays and released the clips on the sides of the box. Still no luck. Does anyone have any suggestions? Am I missing something? I have searched the web for answers and haven't had any luck yet. I appreciate any help you could give me.
 
#74 ·
Yes it is. The fluid container has a divider in it. Where half goes to the brake master, and half goes to the clutch master. If you look through the photos you will see the clutch master.
 
#76 ·
i have a 2005 zx3 and after driving off a small curb the clutch pedal no longer fully depressed. It sinks to a certain level but then just stops. I cant start the car, though I'm still able to get it into gear. I looked underneath the pedals and while my clutch pedal was clean, there was a small amount of fluid dripping down the brake pedal. Does this sound like a cmc problem, or something else?
 
#77 ·
Great write up! Rep added [thumb]

I'm almost done, i just have to wait for my brother to come over and help me bleed it. Only took me about 1.5 hrs to get this far!

A few tips for those doing this in the future...
- When removing the CMC, remove the white retainer from the brake pedal (to disengage it from the plunger) so you can remove the whole bracket and CMC as one unit.

You DON'T have to remove the clutch pedal from the assembly. After removing the assembly as one piece;
- Remove clutch return spring.
- Unbolt the CMC from the bracket.
- Bump it loose (it has to slide down a little).
- Pull the white plunger off.
Install new CMC onto the bracket in reverse order;
- Approximately position CMC on bracket.
- Slide plunger onto pin.
- Slide CMC into place, then bolt it in (may take some finagling).
- Re-install return spring (easiest method - put spring onto the pedal first, then using pliers put the other end onto the bracket.

If you DO unbolt the clutch pedal, put some loc-tite on it when putting it back together. This will prevent it from coming loose (some people have had that problem).

In the engine bay;
To remove/replace the hard to reach bolts or clips without dropping them:
- Buy a cheep extendable magnet. It's worth it's weight in gold.
 
#81 ·
I recently tackled this repair on my ZX5 with the 2.3 Duratec. I found this post extremely helpful and thought I would add a few more photos to help.

These photo shows the location of the clutch bleeder screw, it is in the center of the photo next to the hard line going into the transmission. I found it much easier to lift the front end of the car and get to it from underneath.





Pics of the offending leaking part, you can see it leaking from underneath the pushrod:





Also, after replacing the master cylinder and bleeding the system, I could not get pressure in the pedal. I have a mityvac style vacuum tank and that didn't even work. It wasn't until I read an earlier post that mentioned using a syringe and some tubing that I was able to get the air out. All I could find was a baby medicine syringe at CVS but it worked like a charm.

Thanks to all who helped on this post,

Kevin
 
#83 ·
Yea I had that problem too, had to make a flat screw driver bend a certain way to get at it, Then to get it back on, I had to make this, cause it didn't want to go in far enough to get the clip back on.

well, I didn't have to make it, but it did help.

That was as far as I could get it on, before I pressed it together. Kinda weird, I put the tool on there and pressed, then took it off, and the clip went right on by finger.
 
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