Clutch Bleed
 

Was helping a buddy put his car back together after a new motor. The clutch didn't work so we went looking and found the clutch pin (is that what its called?) wasn't in the clutch fork and had fallen in. So we scavenged the pin and pulled out the cylinder and rubber boot. Rubber seal and the cylinder were in mint shape so we pulled out the slave cylinder and reassembled.

Bled the clutch for at least half an hour. Pump, hold, release was the method we were using. Air always comes out and occasionally a drop but never a squirt. The clutch also stay's on the floor. Anyone have any ideas why this would happen or how to finish bleeding it? I thought its a pretty simple system. The reservoir was always full too.

thewird

If you are sure that the seals are good (my friend had his pop out and the seals were damaged, very hard to bleed because it was sucking air through the seals) Take the slave assembly out, remove actuator rod, and fill it with fluid, and re-install the actuator rod. Then proceed to bleeding the system.



Essentially you are "bench bleeding" the system in the car.



I would not completely rule out the possibility the seal is no good. You may need to get a new one. They are not expensive. My friend bought a new one and we bled it in 2 minutes. The old one had similar problems to what you are describing.

same thing happened to me. i had no idea why the clutch pedal went to the ground after bleeding. i used one those little air things that you hook a compressor to and it bleeds it for you. but after the bleed, i would press he clutch pedal and it would go the floor and the piston is fully extended...

it ended up being a bad throw out bearing and clutch retaining ring that the throw out bearing goes into... i had to replace all 3 pieces in the video. the throw out bearing, the clip and the ring and it problem solved...

That is not my issue, the bleed just isn't squirting (ie. not getting the air out and building pressure). It's like a girl that doesn't get a proper orgasm, just gets wet but no squirt.

thewird

I vote this. I didnt bench bleed mine and it wouldnt bleed. Pulled the sucker bleed it, took all but a few minutes to bleed!

You need to bench bleed it. You have to get the fluid to the point it creates a vacuum seal to "close" the system internally.

Make your own bleed tool.

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/7673/bleedingtool.jpg

The exact thing happened to me. I vacuumed all the oil fluid out while filling the reservoir.

With the slave in the car, the bleed is not the only high point of the cylinder. It is only at the rear. First replace the stock bleed valve with speedbleeder. http://speedbleeder.com/

Then remove the slave from the bellhousing, have the speedbleeder slightly loose with a small hose on it going to somewhere safe, hold the slave so that the valve is higher than the unit,
hold the piston or rod so it can not easily move, have a friend very slowly pump the clutch pedal, tighten bleed and reinstall.

Have a cold beer. Works all the time for me.

So if you have one of those vacuum pumps to pump the air and fluid, can all of this be avoided, or will the slave still need to be bench bled?
I did this yesterday by attaching the hand pump to the slave bleeder nipple and pumped away; and I regained pressure in the clutch for a while, but then air bubbles kept coming and coming and the clutch lost most of the pressure again...

you still need to bench bleed the slave. Believe me I just went through 2 weeks of trying to get a decent clutch bleed. The only thing that worked was finally purchasing a speed bleeder...then taking a long 5 ft clear plastic tube...connecting it from the slave/speed bleeder and the other side of it running all the way back into the clutch/brake resevoir. Seriously took 2 min and i had a SOLID clutch pedal.

Wow, so bench bleeding is still necessary then?
So what about with your speedbleeder method, how is that different that you wouldn't have to bench bleed? Or did you still have to take out the slave and bench bleed it before pumping it through with the speedbleeders?

Yes still necessary. Speedbleeders just enable you to do it on your own and do it effectively.

Bench bleeding is not necessary, just jack the car up in the front so the air is pushed out of the clutch master. Then lower the front a bit and jack up the rear and bleed the slave. It is not difficult, no speedbleeder needed.

I just bled mine as if it were a brake caliper. Took a few minutes...

So question about the speed bleeder... If you screw out the bleeder nipple on the slave, replace it with the speed bleeder, and then bleed it: How do you then take out the speed bleeder and put in the regular bleeder again without having fluid escape and air get in the system?....

^ You leave it in. It replaces the conventional bleeder valve.

I disagree.....it was absolutely necessary to bench bleed my master. I physically saw air bubbles move out. There was also air on the back side of the clutch master..and when I removed the c-clip there was air before fluid came out. If you've never had to do much to bleed your lines I think you may be ok. But if you've had your system apart..It is a must. Speed-bleeders aren't necessary, unless you are bleeding the system on your own. If you are doing it on your own..Speed bleeding is the way to go.

Well, I changed my Clutch master, clutch line, and clutch slave without bench bleeding so it is obviously not "absolutely necessary".

must be magical parts......and in that case then i guess it's not necessary. But if he's having problems bleeding. Then theres air getting in or air inside already. I did say it was absolutely necessary to bench bleed my set up. And i'll stand by bench bleeding all set ups for the sake of making sure you get all the air out of the system. I went through the same thing....30min of bleeding with no success. Bench bleeding matched with speed-bleeders solved my problem right away.

thats weird !! i bled mine the other day took only 5 pumps to get a few drips and then not long after got a good squirt every time. my method was pump three times hold to the floor ,release bleeder nut then tighten and repeat

did you place a funnel in your reservoir and keep it topped with brake fluid while bleeding so the only way fluid or air can go is out your slave.

Yeah, i figured that one out today... Went to buy that speed bleeder and asked them about it.
Really don't know what my problem is though! My clutch master and clutch slave are brand new, just bought them from Mazda dealer.. I bench bleed the slave, throw it in, pump 5 times and leave the pedal on the floor, release, close, put the pedal up, pump 5 times, release, close and so on... Did it for a good 20 mins and no pressure and barely any fluid. So i opened the nipple and kept pumping the clutch and still barely any fluid came out.

So can somebody explain bench bleeding in detail? What I do is:
Take the slave off, disconnect the line where it attaches to the rubber part of the line, then I submerge that hard line of the clutch slave into fluid and pump away until it is all full. Then it was also said to pull out the rod (one that sticks into the accordion looking rubber piece) and fill that piece with fluid? So I did that.. Pumped the clutch so fluid goes thru the master until it squirts out of the rubber line, (so no air in the system there), then I stick the Slave back in, tighten the hard line with the rubber line, and then I start the bleeding process....
And still the fluid does not want to come out....

you could try to gravity bleed it loosen the nipple and wait for the fluid to come out but under your situation it seems like that would take a very long time, a couple year back i had air in my lines and spent nearly 3 hours trying to bench bleed , buddy bleed you name it and i had nothing.

eventually i took it to my mechanic and he did the same and nothing , eventually he had to buy a pressure bleeder to force the fluid through . didnt take to long but he soon got me a half pedal , i then drove the car for a day and eventually i got a full pedal .

i then gravity/ buddy bled just to make sure there was no more air in the system. so that might be the only option is to do the pressure bleeder way, if there is an air pocket in your lines your fluid will def stay in there and not want to come out and since the lines on our cars are so long and twister the pressure bleeder might be the only way.

thats just from my experience , hope it helps a bit and good luck