GM / General Motors: '86 Olds Calais hydraulic clutch problem...

"Cory Dunkle" wrote
 

This will most likely be a waste of your time.....you have some
sort of hydraulic problem that will not be be resolved by
bleeding.
 

Just use regular brake fluid for the clutch. If you can find the slave
cylinder,
(it should be toward the front side of the transmission) there should be
a bleed screw on the slave cylinder itself. The best way to bleed clutches
is to have an assistant push the clutch pedal to the floor, then you crack
the bleed screw and allow the pressure plate to do the work of pushing
the slave cylinder piston back in it's bore.Then tighten the bleed screw
"before" your assistant releases the pedal....release the pedal...check
your fluid level and adjust...then repeat.
 
slave 

On a vehicle that old....it's not a good idea to replace the master
or slave by themselves. It's best to just replace them as a set...and
in fact, often GM only sold them as a set. If the slave is an external
slave...(which I believe it is on that year of car)...then the slave is
actually easier to change then the master. Two nuts and off she
comes.
 
and/or 

It would be a mistake to try to compare the shift qualities of
a Honda Prelude and a shitbox like the Olds Calais.

Ian

"shiden_kai" <com> wrote in message
news:xdCvb.454026$.. 

I'm pretty sure it's just old/dried/cracked seals in one or both of the
cylinders which are leaking and don't hold pressure. I'd rather use a
logical process of elimination first though, to be sure I'm not wasting
money on parts I don't need. This car is strictly a beater. I will be
getting it for $250 and I should it end up costing me more than $500 I'm
gonna try to get rid of it for whatever I've got in it so far. I had the
same idea about the Prelude, but unfortunately that needs several hundred
dollars worth of parts now, so I'm looking fora replacement econo-box. The
main idea here is cheap. This car is from the original owner who ordered it
from the factory (not drive off the lot) and I know has taken good care of
it. He parked it 1-2 years ago.. When he parked it everything was working
well and it had passed inspection without a hitch. From my preliminary
inspection the only things I see that it needs fixed are the clutch issue,
and possibly a new set of front brake pads which is no big deal as they are
only $15-$20.
 
bleeding 
bleed 
clutches 

Sounds easy enough... Very similar to bleeding brakes.
 
change, 
any 

As I said, the idea with this $250 car is cheap. I want to put as little
into it as possible. If my fiance wasn't going to be driving it too I'd say
to hell with the clutch and just shift without it. Anyway, the slave
cylinder appears to be external, as I remember seeing it on the transmission
and I also saw pictures of the both cylinders when I priced them online. If
there is any way to be sure which one is the problem it would be great as I
hate to spend $125+ on parts for an econo-box/beater if I don't need to.
That's more than I'd like to spend to 'get it running', but if I see nthing
else wrong with the car it's probably worth it.
 
Is 

I would think that one should be able to shift into and out of gear easily
on any properly functioning transmission+shifter, even if it is a little
sloppy. I doubt the car would have sold too well if it shifted like it does
now when new. Now that I think about it though a big part of the problem may
be that the clutch drags a bit, which could make it a little difficult to
get out of gear.

Cory