Clutch Bleed Help

Black94SC5spd

Registered User
My car is still in the shop and they are haveing trouble bleeding the clutch. Does anyone know of quick fix if there are any?
Is there any special approach to fix this ?
if not i appreciate your time.
If so i appreciate the answers.

Thanks Alot,

Nick


B.T.W - The car is a 1994 Tbird SC 5 Speed with a brand new slave cylander
 
I am interested in this info also. I just put in a new slave and was going to bleed it this weekend, didn't expect any problem but maybe I am in for it!
 
I didn't have any problems with the SC, but my old ladies Ranger was a bear. It was a brand new slave cylinder. I used a large screwdriver to compress the throw out bearing back (the clutch was out against the pressure plate fingers, had to push it back about 3/8") all this was done while someone else held the clutch in. I would have the person pump the clutch then I would press the throw out bearing back, then open the bleeder, close the bleeder release the screwdriver, then release the clutch. It took about 4-5 times, then we just pressed the clutch and bled it just as if it were a braking system. You have to keep an eye on the fluid level about 3 cycles and it's out. So watch out for the fluid.

PS don't get the brake fluid in your eye. It hurts.

Jeff
 
Give it a try I didn't have any luck with it. I don't think it's pulls enough out fast enough to "wash" the air out. My theory is that the bubbles still had time to move back where they were b4. You like they don't want to come out or something.

Jeff
 
That's odd, I replaced my clutch and slave cyl when I had my engine out and I didn't have any problems.

My chilton said to pump the clutch at least 30 times to get the air out. As goofy as this sounds from all my other experiences it actually worked. I just plugged the line in and pumped the pedal (I believe I pumped it rather quickly, not sure it that makes any difference). I don't think it even took 20 pumps to work the air out, haven't had any problems with it in the 40k since.

It's been awhile, but if I remember correctly there wasn't even a bleed valve on the slave, though it looked like there was some sort of passage running up to where the line connects in, I think that passage may have exited from a high point in the slave cylinder to take air back to a point (where the hose connects) where it could rise the rest of the way to the master cyl reservoir.

If your line isn't running 'uphill' all the way from the slave cyl, or if it is kinked or pinched somewhere the air might be having difficulty purging itself from the line.
If there is a bleed valve on your slave then it might be a different design from the one I worked with and would probably bennifit from using a reverse-bleeding technique.
 
bigcat is right - just pump away - mine was real bear tho - pumped until my leg was sore but eventually the air worked its way out
 
I think you guys just got lucky. If you are just disconnecting it it doesn't really leak because it seals off when you disconnect it. There is a bleeder screw just like there is on the calipers and any other hydraulic slave cylinder.

Jeff
 
my system was totally dry as it was an auto to manual swap. i tried the bleeder and never could get all the air out. it was going nowhere as far as the pedal firming up was concerned so i bled it the best i could and pumped the pedal untill the air worked out.
you are correct about the check valve if you disconnecting a full system - just releasing the line from the slave should maintain everything status quo when you hook back up again.
regardless of the hassles - it still beats messing with a z bar
jim
 
My car is still up on blocks so I went out and took a look to refresh my memory. The resulting discussion is a little long, but there are some somewhat realistic ideas that the end that my help.

There is a port for a bleeder valve in at about 1:30 to 2:00 as you look at the slave cyl from the front. As I remember there was nothing in this port on the new slave cyl and I had to transfer what was on the old slave to it.

This part I tranfered over looks like it could be a bleed valve on the end, but being shaped just like a bolt head (hex) with a hole in the center I saw no way to get a good seal on it with a hose for bleeding, so I assumed it must not really be intended for that and took the chiltion's advice on just pumping the pedal.

The slave cylinder was dry (unless it was primed by the manufacturer, though I would think it would have leaked a little in the box), and really it should not have worked since the line does not come out of the top of the slave cylinder. The only thing I could begine to guess at was that the device that screwed into the bleeder port (I say 'device' because with a multiple piece, 3/4" dia body about 2.5 to 3" long, it looked like more than just the simple extension/pipe that would be needed to simply move the bleeder out to hole in the bell houing) was some sort of fluid sensitive check/float valve that would let air but not fluid out. It's conceivable, but I'm not sure that the cost of such a device would be justified simply by the time it saved on the assembly line. I would also doubt that such a device would work on my car after 136k

With all this said I here's another thought on something to check. Having never had the master cyl off of this car I'm not sure if this is the case, but many master cyls for clutchs have an adjustble link to the pedal. If that link is adjusted too long (or the pedal is not coming up al the way for some reason) it will not let the piston in the master cyl come back far enough to uncover the hole that leads to the reservoir. If there is not good flow from the reservoir the fluid will become airated with repeated bleeding attempts at bleeding. Reverse bleeding would not be componded by this problem, though it probably would not be effective on these cars anyway since you're trying to push air out the line which is half-way down on the master cyl.

One solution might be to pop the line off of the slave, fill it with a reverse bleed gun, (from the clutch line port, with whatever bleeder you have cracked), close the bleed, reconnect the clucth line, and then carefully reverse bleed without* getting any air from the reverse bleeding gun/pump back into the slave. *This may be next to impossible.

Here's one other thought, going back to the idealistic solution of pumping the pedal. Is your car level when they are trying to bleed it or is it up on one side?...may make a difference if the system was designed to be 'pumped out' by a someone on the assembly line while the car rolled along. When I 'bled' mine while all four corners were up with the car level.

Good luck, the best you can hope for is for the person who bled these things out at the factory to contribute to the discussion, though that person may point you to the person who designed the system...perhaps while muttering some choice words.
 
I bled mine using the pump up the pedal and handheld vacumn pump with a nipple in the bleeder outlet. It fixed it right up with no problems. Gotta keep that reservoir full though.
 
I just finished doing two of these, one on my car and one on another club members. We both used new slaves from Ford and they should come fully charged. However with this said sometimes they do need to be bled. The bleeder valve, located directly above the quick connect hydraulic fitting for the slave is where it is done. Do it exactly like you would brakes, pump it up, hold the pedal, have someone release the bleeder valve, let the pedal go slowly to the floor. You control this by how far the bleeder valve is opened, close the valve as the pedal reaches the floor. Repeat this a few times. make sure the reservoir does not run dry.
AFter a few times and you no longer see any air bubbles coming out you may have to pump up the clutch one final time and it should stay up.

Out of curiosity what makes you think that there is air in the system?
 
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