Finished installing new head and timing belt kit and it runs great. I was out running her a bit and clutch pedal dropped to floor while driving in a parking lot. I have a full reservoir and a limp pedal. It's in neutral and I can not shift gears while engine is running. I can't see any obvious leaks. I looked up under dash for Master cylinder leaks and all around slave but nothing is obvious. Has anyone had these or similar symptoms? I ordered a new Master and slave cylinder and will receive on Thursday so would like to be ready. Any help is appreciated!
Please ignore signature Accord, I now have a 97 5 mt. Trying to figure out how to change.

 

I would say you either have air in the system, or either the master or slave has failed internally due to a damaged/deformed cup. Are all of the hardlines and hoses connected tightly?

 

I will check connections and bleed the system before replacing anything. Thanks for the reply!

 

The master can get air in it, and behave that way. Anything that happens to the piping or the slave, I think you would have a visible leak of fluid coming from the piping or the slave.

Does anything look disconnected or broken down at the slave & throwout lever?

PS for your signature...
Look upper-left for a button that says "User CP". Then there's a bunch of buttons along the left side, one of them is "edit signature"

 

First check for leaks. If no leaks, either behind the slave cylinder boot or at the master cylinder push rod then just try to rebleed it but it's odd to just have air in the system without a leak or the system opened up recently. However it's possible for an air bubble in the system to manifest itself at a subsequent date if service was done recently.

 

^ What Holmesnmanny said. Pull back the slave cylinder boot and see if there's fluid behind it. If so, your slave's piston cup is gone.

Another thing to check: perhaps your clutch fork failed?

 

Thanks for all the replys. My new master and slave should arrive tomorrow. I just came in from bleeding it. I wrapped a cord around pedal, put my tube on nipple and into cup with small amount of fluid and started pushed mg and pulling up. Pedal is completely limp. I continued until I had cycled out all of the rotten fluid. Grayish black. It's clear now with no improvement in pedal. I didn't pull boot back on slave but did another inspection around master inside and out and on all fittings ad saw no leaks. I figure I will start by changing out the slave and see if returns pressure. If not I'll swap Master and see. I don't usually throw parts at it but my I'm going on another short trip next weekend and hope to have it running by then.

 

Yeah, with your fluid looking like squid ink I'll betcha the slave is probably shot. All those particles in the fluid no doubt ate up the piston seal until it couldn't hold any more pressure from the master. That's my hypothesis, anyway.

 

Using the string around the clutch pedal, you have to use your foot to control the pedal while pulling it up. If you allow the pedal to snap quickly upwards, that has a tendency to pull air in from around the shaft seal on the master cylinder. Not sure exactly why that happens, but I've seen that on a couple different Hondas/Acuras.

 

Thanks Jim Blake. I have read your "string" technique in many searched threads. First thing I did was grab a bungee and it worked like a champ! I installed slave and master and started bleeding. It appeared I had removed all air bubbles and tightened the bleeder. I pumped the pedal and had about 1/4 to a 1/2 pedal, pressure wise. Checked slave area for leakage and saw leakage up from slave on top of transmission! Traced leak to metal line that runs from baffle up on top of transmission down to slave. Looks like a black covering on metal tubing and when I pressed pedal fluid squirts out from jacketing down on top of transmission! I am going to salvage yard tomorrow to replace. Had I done more investigating I would have solved this for just a few dollars. Shame, shame, I know. Either way I'm very happy that my clutch is intact and will be up,and running tomorrow!!! Thanks everyone who helped!