I just spent a little over 2 hours last night in thick mosquitos installing a new clutch master and slave cylinder assembly that I bought for $220 from my local dealership. My truck is a 2002 Ram 2500 w/ diesel and 6-speed manual transmission.

Everything went pretty smooth until the very last step of the installation. The hydraulic line coming down from the master cylinder to the slave has a male connector on it, and the line attached to the slave has the female end of the connection. I understand that once they're connected at that point, they should not be removed; no problem. The problem is that I can't connect the things!

I'm not the world's strongest man, but I'm no wimp either, and I had a good position under the truck to really put some force on these connectors to get them together, and they just wouldn't go. My truck has already been non-operational for over 2 weeks, and I REALLY need this thing to be running again.

I called the dealership and asked if there was any special tool or technique I needed to get those together, and the answer was, "Nope. Just use your hands and push them together." I wouldn't be surprised if there was some little trick to it that they're not telling me, since I'm doing the work myself instead of using their shop, but I make very very little money, and it's taken me this long just to save up for the part; I can't afford to pay them to do a job that should be very simple to do myself (and it was, except for this connector).

So, I really hope I can get a response before the end of the day today, so I can get my truck back up and running tonight. If no one here knows what the deal is with this, I think I'll put as much pressure on the dealership as possible to either tell me the truth, or lose the sale. After all, if the connectors are just supposed to snap together by hand, and since they don't do that, then the part MUST be defective, right?

Anyway, much thanks in advance for any help you can afford.

 

After seeing so many people mentioning South Bend Clutch for a heavy duty master/slave cylinder assy, among other things, I called them to ask about availability and price. I told them I considered just returning the part saying it won't snap together, and the guy warned me that by having the slave cylinder installed, it was loaded up with pressure, which made the connection very difficult.

Now, I haven't actually checked to make sure it will work, but it sounds very sensible to me. So for future reference, don't bolt up the slave cylinder all the way until the hydraulic lines are connected.

MAN, I sure hope this is the answer.

 

Did you remove the clear plastic collar from the one end? They won't go together with that still on there.

 

Same problem here. They went together with a slight snap feel. But they appear to be not all the way connected. It seems to work ok but, I don't feel they are connected all the way. I tried pulling them apart but they are tight. There is a whitish plastic split collar thing on the male part. Looks like that is for disconnectiong them? Anybody have this issue? Can someone post a picture of what they look like when they are together correctly?

 

If you remove that plastic collar it will go right together.

 

I just got a picture of the assembly snapped together from Dan at Vallair clutch. The photo shows about a 1/4" between the top of the female and the flange of the male, along with about 1/4" of the white plastic collar. Looks like mine is snapped in correctly. I'll try and post the picture here.