Hard clutch line at slave - alternatives?

[Spittybug]

Murphy's law. Weather gets hot and there is less desire to work in a hot garage and things break..............

I was a block away from home testing to see if the vibration was still there after having my wheels balanced. I noticed the clutch went further to the floor before engaging. It got a bit worse with each shift. Immediately turned around and got home. Checked reservoir; empty! No puddle under car. No wet hoses or master cylinder. Problem must be at other end..... Put up on lift and checked slave. It looks like it has been slowly leaking, not enough to make a puddle, but enough to allow road dirt to cake onto the bell and frame. OK, bit bullet and removed it. Corroded. No brainer, time for a new one. In the course of getting it out however, I crimped the hard line to it. Damn.

My question is whether I need to replace this with hard line or if I can get something like SS braided (like from front to back) instead. I like being able to move things aside when poking around under there. I never have fully understood the benefit of the hard line other than ease of assembly at the factory. Has anyone replaced this? What did you use? Not crazy about the $54+ price at DMCH for a piece of bent tubing either.....

Something like this: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/aaf-all46100-24?seid=srese1&gclid=CjwKEAjwlfO3BRDR4Pj_u-iO2U0SJAD88y1SNyppcit1H0siiTCAyBgucxC8KMTktDXiLE18 Li7YThoC7iXw_wcB

[DMCMW Dave]

I never have fully understood the benefit of the hard line other than ease of assembly at the factory. ]

Not a bad idea if you can figure out the fittings.

The factory did have one very good reason for running that hard line BTW - the plastic line would have been an even bigger disaster running that close to the exhaust crossover pipe. If you have headers on the car it's not an issue.

It would also be possible to make the whole line reach end to end. This causes an issue for vendors which is why it's never happened: You would now have two different part numbers for the same piece, 2X the inventory, and confusion among buyers who would inevitably order the wrong one, or install the "long" one on a car with a crossover, not dress or zip-tie it out of the way, and then have it melt at an inopportune time. Of course being the vendor's fault. Not worth the trouble.

[content22207_2]

Hard tubing on top of the transmission is only there to facilitate assembly line manufacture. Same deal as the heater core return pipe under the intake manifold.

Carefully unbend a standard braided clutch line and you can attach it directly to the slave cylinder:

41175

41176

I've been running like this for well more than a decade (2004 IIRC).

Bill Robertson
#5939

[Delorean Industries]

We offer a stainless version for much less I think.

[DMCMW Dave]

Hard tubing on top of the transmission is only there to facilitate assembly line manufacture. Same deal as the heater core return pipe under the intake manifold.

Carefully unbend a standard braided clutch line and you can attach it directly to the slave cylinder:

I've been running like this for well more than a decade (2004 IIRC).

#5939

Without a crossover pipe BTW

[Delorean Industries]

Without a crossover pipe BTW

The Robertson spec .01 exhaust is an engineering marvel in its own right and should not be trifled with. The genius behind preheating your cv axles for cold weather running was ahead of its time.

[content22207_2]

Without a crossover pipe BTW

The line is butted against the heat shield under the parcel shelf. I really don't think a standard crossover pipe would make any difference. Factory hard tubing goes over the crossover pipe too.

Definitely wouldn't matter with headers.

Owen is running custom exhaust of some ilk anyway. He's mated it to Peugeot manifolds. Not sure where it goes then. Doesn't have a crossover pipe irrespective.

Bill Robertson
#5939

[David T]

The Robertson spec .01 exhaust is an engineering marvel in its own right and should not be trifled with. The genius behind preheating your cv axles for cold weather running was ahead of its time.

If you have to replace the slave cylinder you should also replace the master at the same time. If one got corroded and leaked the other is also going to be bad unless it was recently replaced already.

[Spittybug]

If you have to replace the slave cylinder you should also replace the master at the same time. If one got corroded and leaked the other is also going to be bad unless it was recently replaced already.


Yup. it was recently replaced.

[Drive Stainless]

Would a stainless master and slave corrode? It would be easy to make.

[DMCMW Dave]

The line is butted against the heat shield under the parcel shelf. I really don't think a standard crossover pipe would make any difference. Factory hard tubing goes over the crossover pipe too.


Hard tubing is not the same as plastic tubing (BTW stainless braided lines are still plastic on the inside) with respect to laying on or near a hot exhaust pipe.

[content22207_2]

FWIW: you can see relative proximity of my clutch line to the exhaust flex tubing. They don't touch, but they do pass over each other. No problems in 12 plus years of use.

Bill Robertson
#5939

[DMC-81]

I replaced the original hard pipe with DMC's SS version. No complaints, although I really had to crank on the fitting at the slave. Even though it is a steel hard pipe, when I looked at the close proximity of the crossover pipe, I installed heat shielding like this on the clutch line:
http://m.summitracing.com/parts/hsp-274012

If you are considering the braided line alternative, I recommend that.

I did a similar thing on the fuel feed line passing through that area, and the brown alternator wires.