Weird clutch problem on '86 Nissan pickup (4wd)

This started 9 months ago when it was cold. The clutch will engage
intermittently. I thought it had something to do with the cold as it
would engage after warming up and then would only not engage
occasionally thereafter.

This summer it got a little worse so I cleaned out the clutch fluid
reservoir. There was this black coating along the walls of the
reservoir. After cleaning and adding more fluid (not replacing all the
fluid) it started working again. What do I need to do to fix this?
Somehow clean the fluid lines and replace the fluid?

When I say the clutch won't engage, I mean the pedal will fall to the
floorboard. There is no clutch pressure at the clutch pedal.

In article .com>,
wrote:

> This started 9 months ago when it was cold. The clutch will engage
> intermittently. I thought it had something to do with the cold as it
> would engage after warming up and then would only not engage
> occasionally thereafter.
>
> This summer it got a little worse so I cleaned out the clutch fluid
> reservoir. There was this black coating along the walls of the
> reservoir. After cleaning and adding more fluid (not replacing all the
> fluid) it started working again. What do I need to do to fix this?
> Somehow clean the fluid lines and replace the fluid?
>
> When I say the clutch won't engage, I mean the pedal will fall to the
> floorboard. There is no clutch pressure at the clutch pedal.
>

Based on your description, I'd say one or the other (or possibly both)
of the clutch cylinders have gone to that big junkyard in the sky. With
the information given, it's impossible to say for sure which is the bad
one.

The black film is the inside of the bad cylinder/outside of the bad
cylinder's piston and/or rubber cup, in finely ground form.

The fix: Figure out which one is toast and rebuild/replace it.
Personally, I'd do both of them at the same time, and probably replace
the hose connecting them, since my experience is that when "the black
slime" appears and one cylinder dies, the other is going to die shortly
after replacing/repairing the bad one.

Rebuild kits can be had cheap (less than $25 will cover both of mine),
and the task is rarely difficult - Hardest/most time-consuming aspect is
probably refilling/bleeding the system once you've got it back together.

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