Today I tried to bleed my clutch slave cylinder with a vacuum hand pump, but there was barley any fluid coming out (0,3 oz at max). My engine was out of the car for more than 6 months for a rebuild. When I tried to reinstall the slave cylinder a few days ago, it was seized. So I took it out of the car (not blocking the line) and put it in a vise with a piece of wood pressing against the piston and with little pressure it came free. I greased it and put it back in the car.

I really tried hard today, my hands hurt from all the pumping.. The level in the reservoir didn't change at all.

The reservoir was open and filled with fluid, the nipple was open (btw, how wide should it be open? Only barely or multiple turns?) and as I said, at first a little bit was coming out, but then it stopped. What could be the reason for this? Is there something else I need to bleed first?

 

Sounds like your master cylinder hasn't got enough fluid to start pumping yet. Might need to bench bleed.

Had an FC master/slave I did recently that just wouldn't start moving fluid. Took the master off the car, pumped it a bunch and primed the pump with some fluid at the point where the hard line connects. Finally got it to start pushing fluid.

If the master is dry you're just compressing air, you've got to get some fluid in there.

Dale

 

But I'm working with vacuum at the slave cylinder, not with pressing the clutch pedal! Shouldn't the vacuum suck it through?

EDIT: My plan for tomorrow was to try and bleed the passenger (in my case driver, bc JDM) rear brake caliper to see if there is fluid coming, but I guess, since a completely different system, it should work, right?

 

The clutch hyraluics pulls fluid from the same reservoir as the brake master but that's it. Bleeding brakes won't have any impact on the clutch hydraulics.

Just vacuum won't cut it, you've got to get the fluid down in there. Pumping the pedal with vacuum may help.

Dale

 

Ok, I'll try that, thanks a bunch!

 

You haven't had the clutch pedal out of the car by any chance? If the adjustment is out on the pin bleeding is impossible.

 

No, pedal hasn't been touched.

 

You might want to get some air pressure into your reservoir and pump the pedal at the same time.

 

I have a vacuum AND overpressure hand pump aswell, but no way to put it on the reservoir.. Any suggestions?

 

I ended up using my fist to seal the blow nozzle on the compressor to the reservoir and pumped the pedal at the same time. You can feel when its getting pressure as the plastic expands inside your hand a bit.

 

How would that even be possible with the door in the way? Luckily I have a second person to try all this tomorrow..

 

Why are you not using the clutch pedal?

 

Because it's a pita compared to vacuum. But I will try it as a last resort if the other suggestions don't work.

 

It's really not, but you need two people (just like bleeding brakes). Or you can try speed bleeders

 

Couldn't agree more.
I bought into those vacuum dealies a while ago, and found it was more trouble than it was worth.

My go-to now is a check-valve with a cup for solo-bleeding.

The thing is... With the vacuum setup, is you end up pulling air through the threads of the bleeder fitting. You can put some vacuum grease around the base of the threads to mitigate this... but come on.

If I were you, I'd crack open the bleeder and just pump away at the clutch until I saw fluid coming out. Then I'd fart around with the check-valve bleeder.

 

Yeah, it is. The procedure of push - open - close - let go - and do it again did bother me that much with my last car, that I bought the vacuum pump - its so much easier this way. Not to mention the not needed second person. I also bought such a valve you mention, I don't remember why but that didn't work for me either.

But anyhow, I solved my issue today. Here is how:

First of all, I tried to pressurize the reservoir with my overpressure handpump by using my hand as a cap. That didn't work. Than I thought wait a second, sometimes its good to buy a car from the "same" vendor:



This is the reservoir cap of my sold Ford Probe 24V (Mazda Engine), its exactly the same as the FD one. I thought of that terrible HipHop song where they permanently say "drill a hole" and it was born:



The pressurizer. But it was a pita to use and had not enough "umpf" so I build the pressurizer 2:




But all the pressure I could put on the reservoir with this little bad boy was going nowhere, the handle was very heavy to push down. The nipple on the slave cylinder was opened btw., I even removed the nipple and the ball completely.

I assumed that the only way there was no fluid coming out would be, that the slave cylinder was somewhat clogged so I removed it. But also with the line hanging freely, there was no fluid coming out when I pushed. So I followed the line, checked if it was crushed or something, but no, everything fine. Than I came to the reservoir with the light I used to follow the line and I got the impression that there was something weired with the level in the reservoir.

I can even hear the sound of your hands hitting your forehead right here in Germany!

Yes, the reservoir side for the clutch was not filled enough, so I only sucked and pushed air through the line. The Level in the first (brake-) part of the reservoir was way over Min., so I didn't think I had to put more in it, especially since I wanted to get the old brake fluid out before I put in fresh one. Who could assume, that the two systems use the same reservoir, but that this is somewhat divided into two internally? You have to fill the reservoir nearly to Max. before it starts filling the clutch side.

I'm sorry for having taken up your valuable time with such a noob error, but at least no one who can use the search in here has to do the same error again.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mention something important if someone wants to copy the pressurizer 2 (For whatever reason): You would have to remove the inside thing of the reservoir cap (For drilling, obviously, anyhow) but leave it out and use a rubber ring for sealing. The cap in its original form does allow pressure to escape , something I learned the hard way with my old track tool (The aformentioned Ford Probe), the clutch was allways slipping when the brakefluid was hitting a certain temperature. Sealed it and never had the issue again.

 

Been there, done that! It's actually smart having the little "wall" in the reservoir so if the clutch hydraulics fail you still have brakes.

I almost mentioned that as a possibility but said "nah"

Dale

 

Yeah, I know, nobody could be that stupid, could he?

And yes, of course its smart, but .. Well, now I know it too..

 

You first clue should have been when your hand was tired from pumping.
Just pulling air and not going into deeper vacuum...

Bet you know that now though.

 

....or if you loose your brakes, you still have a clutch

Experience is one bitch of a teacher

Glad you figured it out

 

I have had to bleed my clutch 3 time by myself without help over the past year due to pulling and replacing my motor.

Using a speed bleeder and speed bleeder bag I have never taken more then 10 minutes to fully bleed the clutch. Speed bleeders are awesome and cheep!

 

I used the Motive bleeder for brakes on my clutch and it worked great, all by myself. My mom was so proud ;-)

 

As other people have mentioned, the clutch and brake share the same reservoir but they are separated internally by a wall.

I had a similar experience when bleeding the clutch and the issue for me was that the actual part of the reservoir holding the fluid for the clutch was draining and I was only looking at the part of the reservoir holding the brake fluid.
The wall is not the full height of the reservoir so on initial bleeding, it will go down, but once it reaches below the height of the wall, you have to look to the part of the reservoir sectioned off (closer to the firewall). I was pumping air into the clutch lines and wondering why my levels werent dropping in the reservoir.
It was definitely a face palm moment for me when i realized what was happening.