Bleeding the bleeding clutch....help
 

Dear All
I'm defeated after three seperate sessions of trying to bleed the system, i'm not really getting anywhere. I dont have any power bleeders (In third world Lebanon) but i thought a simple pressurised oil can and a litte inginuity would do it. How hard can it be?

Anyway, after several attempts, i started to get a little paranoid. I really wanted to do a reverse bleed which i think is more sensible but i noticed that neither air nor fluid came up the blue tube, which connects to the reservoir, which made me curious. SO i did the gravity bleed insted with the slave up in the engine bay and a g clamp on the piston to hol dit in. All seemed incredibly easy and logical. I put my foot on the pedal and it was solid. 100% pressure. WHat could go wrong?

Putting it back on to the housing was harder and when i got down there, i realised that the rod and the piston were sticking out too far. But under pressure of course, they wont budge back in so i undid the nipple a tad and let science do the rest. But when i closed the system, peddle fell almost to the foor. Went down there and opened the nipple and pumped more fluid in through the blue tube at the top, but couldn't get any real change.

WHat the hell am i doing wrong? Is it a myth or really true that if you bleed from the top, then you willl always have air in the system?

Please help. I'm pulling my hair out.

thanks


MJ

you really have to bleed from the top down, with all components in place. without a motive power bleeder, you could be at this for a while. you really should buy one. it is an invaluable tool, since the entire hydraulic system needs to be flushed every 2-3 years.

make sure the high pressure hose is not "ballooning" when you push the pedal. make sure the blue hose has no cracks in it.

Really good tip about the blue hose. It would explain a lot if there were a crack there.

A power bleeder could take weeks to get here even if i ordered one on ebay

MJ

understood, but you will face this problem every 2-3 years. might as well get it in progress, even if you have to limp through this bleeding without it.

the only one that really works is the Motive. don't mess with the others.

your other option is to take the car to a shop.

taking it to a Lebanese mechanic would be a disaster.

I never had trouble bleeding the clutch. I undid the slave, filled the reservoir, pump a bit until you get fluid, leave pedal to the floor, connect the slave, nipple open till it flows, close the nipple, pedal up, use a pal, hand vacuum pump or a spring loaded stick to bleed the remainder.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have noticed that there is fluid around the plastic connection for the blue pipe where it goes into the master cylinder. Would this be considered a factor? I mean, is it pissing out there when i do a reverse bleed, which would explain why it aint making its way up the blue tube into the reservoir?

What can one do about that connection (not the actual pipe)?

thanks

sounds like you need a new blue hose

Why? It is the joint - the plastic nipple which goes into the cylinder itself where you see the fluid.

But tell me about the blue hose. If there is a crack, does this let air get sucked in? COuld that be why i have air in the system in teh first place?

because likely the rubber is hardened and cracked. hydraulic hoses fail from the inside. you can't see the condition from the outside. they are rated for a maximum life of 10 years. getting more out of them than that is not at all unheard of, but not expected.

we had one car here that had a hardened blue hose, and it fought us on bleeding. it would bleed out and be fine, but then 15 minutes later, it went to the floor again. it was letting air into the system. we changed out that hose, and all was right with the world.

THanks for that. Much appreciated!

my method was...

raise the rear of the car as high as possible and as safe as possible.

engage the clutch pedal with a rod and sliding the seat forward

using an oil can to pump fluid in from the bottom. the cheap oil can introduced air unless it was completely full so I made a loop with the clear tubing.

taping on the cylinders with a screw driver handle as I pumped to get the bubbles conglomerated and expelled.

once I got some pedal, I bled the old school two person method with a socket through the inspection port to keep the slave piston from extending. (I would not do this with an old master as rusty bores destroy seals in the untraveled zones.)


all new parts including the blue feeder hose (dry rotted) and flex line (abraded and done)

Good luck
 

Two things:

1) the last time I bled the clutch without a power bleeder the clutch pedal was "okay" but not real hard; a few miles of driving and whatever tiny bubble was in there seemed to work its way up and out and the pedal got firm. May not be ideal but I thought I would throw that out.

2) Be careful removing the feed hose (blue low pressure hose) to the clutch master cylinder, it turns out the hose nipple is plastic and can break (ask me how I know). Next time I will take a razor and cut it off being careful not to nick the nipple.