First off, hello guys, I just bought a 77 280z, 4spd from a charity auction so I decided to join a Z forum. I hear that you guys and also zcar are the best... This car is clean and nice, just been sitting in a garage for 23 years! I'm changing the clutch master, and oh man I'm going nuts! I have also changed the slave, just mentioning this, so this slave can be ruled out for the problem:

I installed the reman clutch master cylinder I bought from Auto Zone today. First thing I noticed is that the fork on the end where the cotter pin goes through is holding my clutch pedal down about a quarter of the way. My old master cylinder, though in terrible shape, let the clutch all the way up. So I thought nothing of the pedal situation and proceeded to bleed the slave. After all that, I noticed the slave shaft is not going out far enough, just about only half way. The only explanation would be the pedal issue, but I've already extended the fork out as far as it will go!

Basically, the clutch pedal cannot travel far enough to disengage the clutch! This is a brand new part! Anyone have any experience with this?

I hear that the 1976 and up models have a different master cylinder... is it possible they gave me wrong one (pre-1976)? On AutoZone's website, it lists part# CM1356 for a 1977, which is what the bag I got that the master cylinder came in says on it... weird.

Or, maybe I'm doing something wrong? Can someone shed some light on this poor car?

Many thanks and appreciation,
Rod R.

 

Did you bleed the system? If so then, Look up under your dash and theres an adjust rod and lock nut on the back of the pedal where the master gets pinned to the pedal. Adjust it according to specs! (like 10mm of pedal movement before it starts to get pressure on the clutch) And you should be set!

 

Hello,

Thank you for the response! But I have already bled the system, and as I mentioned in my original post, I have already extended the adjustment rod on the new master cylinder as far as it will go... I still had to push my clutch pedal down a quarter of the way just so the pin holes for the cotter pin would line up... something seems wrong to me...

Arrrrgh, this is so strange... why?

 

1) Welcome to Z Driver and Z ownership.
2) Either they gave you the wrong one, or they gave you a bad one. You might not be able to tell if it's the wrong one, as the only difference might be the internal bore size, which you can't measure without disassembling the whole thing. I've received a bad brand new clutch m/c myself. Didn't know it until I installed and had the same symptoms you described. Exchanged for a different new one, and all was fine.

It seems like a lot of new/reman parts are that way now, and it's very frustrating. A friend of mine who's in to air-cooled VW's swears that the only way to buy a new generator for the early models is to buy 3 at a time, to find the one good one in the bunch, and then return the others.

good luck, and congrats on your new Z!
Dave

 

I have the same exact issue with my 78, I am thinking of making an extension for this rod to see if that works. Did you solve the problem?

 

Adjust the rod on the slave cylinder, but you should replace them both at the same time.