On Thursday last week, I took my Vanagon to the same shop that did my Subie conversion.  I explained the issue; those guys got right on it.  Replaced both Master and Slave clutch cylinders.  Yes...feels a little more aggressive now when pushing down the clutch pedal, but I think it will soften as rubber meets steel.  For those of you interested in the economics?  Drive in, Drive out...for the tune of $480.  Just saying.  

Rich
San Diego

    On Saturday, February 29, 2020, 5:41:19 PM PST, Alistair Bell <albell@shaw.ca> wrote:  
 
 Replace both richard.

Unless I’ve missed any warnings about quality of replacement masters, it’s relatively cheap insurance to do both.

If you’re doing it yourself, be prepared for a little hi jinks to bleed the clutch lines. My best results were from reverse pressure bleeding after letting gravity bleed out all the old fluid.

Alistair 

> On Feb 29, 2020, at 4:32 PM, Richard Koerner <rjkinpb@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> 
> So I was crawling under my Vanagon a couple days ago, with flashlight.  Noticed fluid weeping at Clutch Slave Cylinder.  Nothing at all on the ground.  Around 12 years ago on a cross-country roadtrip, started having difficult shifting.  But no fluid on the ground back then either.  The failure was the Clutch Slave Cylinder, and apparently the rubber boot was doing a pretty good job of preventing drips on the concrete so I didn't notice.  Being older and wiser, my instincts seem to point toward replacing that Slave Cylinder NOW while it is easy on home turf.  It will not fix itself.  And, probably Master Cylinder too....a stronger newer one tends to blow out the weaker older one in the hydraulic chain.  The fix back 12 years ago cost me a few bucks in Rochester New York, not to mention a night in a motel, and a lot of aggravation.  
> 
> Comments?  Advice?  I want my vanagon to be ready at a moment's notice to effortlessly travel 10,000+ miles.  It's an 85 tintop, with 283,000 miles on chassis, and about 60,000 miles on a Subie 2.2 motor.  Funny, it's all those little "links" that also have to be just as fine as that superb Japanese motor.
> 
> Rich
> San Diego