seal under clutch pedal leaking.. part number??

[xplorernewb]

so on my 93 sport under the clutch pedal theres a seal around the push rod or piston or whatever. not sure what its called.. does anyone else? or have a part number? mine is pretty well far gone, as it looks like the brake fluid ate it away turning it brown and jagged and now squeakier than ever and i cannot get the air out of the lines. it leaves but as soon as i start driving and using it more and more, it becomes less functional. kinda sticks toward the top of the pedal when releasing it and its hard to shift. doesnt seem to be leaking fluid out of the seal though, just pushing air in and out. slave and master are brand new, including the hose and all was installed professionally (and hopefully correctly) ill try to take a picture of it if no one can figure out what im talking about. thanks in advance

 

[Anime]

If there's a leak, it tends to be from the master cylinder itself. There is a metal pushrod retainer behind the lock ring, that looks like a seal, but the real fluid seal is inside the master cylinder with the hydraulic parts. The parts aren't available seperately, at least not as a rebuid kit or as parts specific to the vehicle.

Did you pay for new OE Motorcraft parts or are they just whatever parts the shop usually gets from the parts store? When it comes to the master and slave cylinders on Explorers, aftermarket parts tend to be cheaper in quality than the OE Motorcraft units from Ford.

At the very least, I'm pretty sure you can get a new master cylinder under whatever warranty the shop/parts store has. Even cheap parts tend to have a warranty of three months to a year. A master cylinder that leaks when almost new is obviously defective and would be covered.

The bad part is the labor to remove the old unit and install a new one might not be covered, so you might wind up paying again even if the part itself is 'free' to exchange under a warranty.

 

[xplorernewb]

is there a way to diagnose if it is actually leaking from there? maybe a UV dye or is it actually inside the mc and not visible? or can i remove it to see it?

 

[Anime]

If you have brake fluid leaking from behind the clutch pedal onto the floor mat, it's the clutch master cylinder. The only other thing that would leak brake fluid is the brake master cylinder, one pedal over.

As far as finding out whether the clutch master cylinder is leaking from inside or not, if it's leaking, that's pretty much it. There's no rebuild kit, and it would take more time and money to source small parts and get the tools to pop everything apart and rebuild it than it would to just buy a new one, or in this case, exchange it for a brand new one under warranty.

You can use lock ring pliers to pop out the lock ring and retainer so you can take out the master cyl pushrod after seperating it from the link on the clutch pedal shaft and taking off the sensor, and use a flashlight to peer inside the master cyl, but finding out which part inside is leaking is pretty pointless, as noted above.

It's either leaking or it isn't, and the only practical fix is a replacement.

With a new unit, it's even more practical since it will be replaced under warranty, though my statement above still stands, the OE Motorcraft units from Ford are preferable over aftermarket units, for their quality and longevity, quality being both the quality of the part and how well they work with the matching slave cylinder for actually moving and disengaging the clutch.