Deb

Bled brakes all round, master cylinder, slave - brakes are perfect but unable to get clutch pedal set up with normal pressure. Pedal drops to half travel before engaging and requires double/triple clutching and still doesn't always allow shifting without alot of careful shifter manuvering. Used vacuum bleeder; have bled quarts of fluid to no avail, also had a wrench do a bleed and nothing has changed.
I intend to check the disc plate spacing but that won't answer the soft pedal .
There are no leaks at the master or slave; have also unbolted the slave and did the "push the piston back by hand" -no improvement. Any wisdom out there??

jon928se

Deb

bleeding the clutch is a dark secret. The main problem is that air gets trapped in the top of the master clylinder not the slave and it won't come out using normal bleeding techniques because the new fluid just flows past it.

The quick way I have found is to use a pressure bleeder until no more bubbles come out of the slave cylinder bleed nipple.

Then thro' the inspection port in the bottom of the bellhousing slowly push the slave cylinder pushrod back in to the cylinder as far as it will go and hold it there. Your assistand will see bubbles coming up into the reservoir. Repeat this a few times allowing lots of time for the bubbles to rise and the new fluid to flow down when you let go of the pushrod.

What you are doing is backflushing the system so it pays to do it gently and slowly.

Regards

Jon
Black SE
New clutch flexi hose fitted last week - over and hour to tighten three hose connections - 5 minutes to bleed clutch and get rid of any air.

WallyP

Last resort for bleeding the clutch...

Disconnect the pedal rod.
Remove the boot and snap ring.
Pull the piston out until it is ALMOST out of the bore.
Tilt the piston so that the top edge only of the seal clears the bore and lets the air out.
Reassemble.

I think that Jay Kempf came up with this...

mspiegle

the pull-the-slave-cyl-off-and-push-rod-in-while-screw-is-open method has never failed me.

Rez

What I did was unbolt the slave. The hyrdrulic line prevented me from pulling it all the way out, so the pushrod was still in there. I was able to pull it out far enough to get a small block of wood in the inspectine hole. Then I pushed the Slave into the wood, ultimately pushing the pushrod into the slave cylinder. Subsequently, when I opened the bleeder, bubbles came pouring out.

I would rebuild the Slave too. You can order a clutch slave rebuild kit from NAPA for $30. Mine was toast and is much happier now.