F40LM

Ok I swapped out the slave cylinder today on the 1 grand 944. The swap itself was not bad at all. Bleeding it and getting pedal is turning out to be a PITA.

First I tried the 'little oil can' method:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdf--...eature=related

My amature opinion is that this method is a POS.

So I backed up and tried method 2 from Clark's garage:

Bleeding Method 2

Install the slave cylinder into the clutch housing.
Raise the rear of the vehicle as high as possible above the front of the vehicle.
Have an assistant depress the clutch pedal and hold it to the floor.
Open the bleed nipple on the slave cylinder. Have a bucket and rags ready to catch any brake fluid that spills. When fluid / air stops coming out, close the bleed nipple.
Have the assistant release the clutch pedal. The first few times the slave cylinder is vented, the clutch pedal with have to be pulled off the floor.
Repeat steps c, d, and e until clutch pedal operation feels normal.

After a half hour of this one no joy. Pedal still flops back and forth from the floor to the up position, zero feel either direction.

This is my first time doing a cylinder job of any type, so please tell me what I am missing? Yes it was sugggested I buy a power bleeder and will do that first thing in the AM if there is not something here that is OBVIOUS to everyone else but me. If that is the majority tells me to go buy a power bleeder what is the prefered method?>>>sucking from the top or from the bottom???

But not gonna sweat it, been back in the states for only a week and am loving working on my 944. So for now I am gonna grab a shower and watch the season finally of Bullrun, hey to me its new, we didn't get it in Iraq.

ALL SUGGESTIONS WELCOME, except sell the car.

michael

75ohm

I bled the brakes and the slave in 15 minutes with the power bleeder, if that helps you solidify your decision...

ideola

What works for me is to have the assistant pump the pedal three times (which requires them to pull it up off the floor), THEN hold it down, THEN open and quickly close the bleeder as soon as the fluid & air stops coming out of the bleeder. It's best to have a hose connected to the bleed nipple, and have the other end of the hose inside a container of some sort and submerged in brake fluid. This will help prevent it from sucking air back into the slave cylinder while the bleed nipple is open. Usually takes about 5-6 attempts before pedal feel is completely restored.

Of course, you could just get a Motive power bleeder (or something similar) and do it yourself

Brett Jenkins

I have performed clutch jobs on 944, 924, and 928 and I have bled all 3 in one shot this way:

You will need a common pump garden sprayer from Lowes, Home Depot, etc, plenty of hose that will fit snugly over the slave bleeder nipple and the nozzle of the sprayer, preferably clear, and plenty of fluid in the sprayer. If you have enough hose, you can stand close enough to the reservoir to watch it fill, if not, have someone watch it for you.

1st, make sure the system is empty, reservoir to slave.

Then, open the slave bleeder and attach the hose to the bleeder and the sprayer.

Pump up the sprayer and then hold down on the trigger. The fluid will reverse fill the system from the slave, through the master, and fill the reservoir.

Obviously stop the sprayer when you have sufficient fluid in the reservoir.

I can not remember if I did this with the pedal down or up, but it has worked flawlessly every time.

yellowline

Well worth the $100.

It's not enjoyable to wrench on these cars without some financial investment in special tools.

MM951

I've posted this a ton of times, but remove the 2 bolts that hold the slave to the bell housing, put a little pressure on the plunger, loosen the bleeder, push the plunger all the way back and before letting it return AT ALL close the bleeder. This should get you going quite nicely..

944-LT1

You should mark the clutch pedal pushrod adjusting nut. Then, adjust the pushrod all the way out. This gives the piston inside the clutch master complete travel. Then try you favorite method of bleeding. After finishing, re-adjust the pushrod back to where it was before.

Where the pushrod is now, you may only be getting a fractrion of the piston travel which makes it very difficult to bleed the clutch system. The method of jacking up the rear of the car is also very helpful in keeping fluid available to the master.

Cass944

I did it this way on my own earlier this summer.

1. raise rear of car as high as you can while still being able to get under the front.
2. fill rez, open bleeder on the slave, and pump clutch until fluid comes out the slave bleeder.
3. push pedal to the floor and leave it there. make sure the rez has fluid in it.
4. go under car, remove slave from bell housing
5. have a line attached to the slave that goes into a bottle with fluid in it so the line is under the fluid and doesnt suck in air. open the bleeder.
6 now just pump the slave by hand... push the rod into the slave then release it. do this a few times then close the bleeder when there are no bubbles.

I may be missing some steps... I learned this method from someone on here and it worked really well. the clutch pedal is nice and stiff. maybe someone can correct any of my steps if they spot a flaw. but i think this is the basic idea.

968 GUY

I agree with the Motive Bleeder method, the pump sprayer method looks interesting, you can get one of those hand vacuum pumps and rig something, but the one that worked for me was Ideola's. The first clutch I had to bleed was on my 968, I had to do it by myself, jam a vacuum cleaner handle between the seat and clutch pedal, crawl under the car, open bleed valve, etc.
On the 951, my daughter was the pedal operator, went much faster, but as ideola stated, had to pump the pedal several times, lifting it off the floor for a few cycles. I have heard this blowhard talking about "microbubbles" in the clutch and brake system when pumping them, but unless you frantically pump it, you won't cause too much damage.

raise the rear of the car or be careful, the clutch res. only holds a small amount.

Darwantae951

I use the motive power bleeder as well and don't have any problems.

F40LM

Thanks for the tip MM951 but tried it and failed. No change, flop up....flop down. I am sure it works for you, I just can't get the nack of this SOB.

Next step....find a power bleeder, and I don' think that will be easy here in Mississippi.

michael

John_AZ

Do you have a Harbor Freight nearby, I think they carry a "cheap" power Bleeder

John

MM951

What came out of the bleeder when you pushed the rod? Fluid, air, ??

F40LM

Mostly fluid

F40LM

There is one within driving distance. Searched thier web site and dont see a power bleeder (as in electric) but they sell these. Anyone tried them?