Why do we need a slave and master clutch cylinders?

[DMCVegas]

My bus cable lasted 50 years and 80,000 miles my slave cylinder died at 25,000 miles not sure I am in agreement with the D wearing less over time.

By clumsy & complicated I was talking about the placement. It's a nightmare changing a slave cylinder. I wish the slave was easier to change and work on.

Cables go bad, and require adjustment. Where your bus was located, and what conditions it was operated in most likely have had a huge effect upon it's longevity too. Particularly when compared to the DeLorean.

And if you think the DeLorean's slave cylinder placement is bad, stay away from Ford trucks. Or you know what, take a look and see the nightmare that is the concentric slave cylinder to better appreciate how the DeLorean got the long end of the stick when it came to hydraulics.

Getting down to it though, cables require allot more brackets and adjustment points to implement in a vehicle. So that can drive up the cost and complicate the installation. Whereas a clutch line just needs some plastic clips to hold the bent or molded tube into place. Hydraulic systems also do not require all of the tinkering and adjustment that cable needs. The only prep needed is to bench bleed the cylinder, and then just bolt it all into place. Connect up a pressurized tank full of brake fluid and just bleed out the fluid until all of the air bubbles and old fluid is gone. That's it. Sure, you repeat it every couple of years, but it really isn't that bad at all.

Cables can have other issues such as freezing if water gets inside, and then eventual breaking. Again though, that's a factor that also depends upon the operating conditions. If you're in the desert, you'd probably never see that kind of issue compared to living in the rust belt.

[Bitsyncmaster]

It's really not bad replacing the slave if you pull the mixture unit. Pulling mixture unit takes about 30 minuets. Bleeding is a breeze if you have a bleeder extension like John sells.

[David T]

And if you have an automatic it is not a problem at all (other problems but not clutch problems!).

[opethmike]

And if you have an automatic it is not a problem at all (other problems but not clutch problems!).

I acknowledge that you have contributed to this thread.

[GeneralLee01]

That is an interesting topic that I have pondered many times over the years, and although I have not yet assessed the condition of the system after 20-30 years of neglect, the DMC is my first manual car with a hydraulic clutch. I will say this about cable systems, I daily drive a 1991 Taurus SHO with 256,000 miles and it has never had any work done to the clutch cable.