The clutch has been a little creaky lately so I thought I would lube the clutch slave cylinder piston as shown here... https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=370792

I had the piston out and was cleaning and greasing it back up out from under to car only to go back and find that the spring contraption in the clutch slave cylinder had popped loose and spilled fluid on the ground. I put the spring back in and put everything else back together and put the slave cylinder back on and since fluid had spilled out I knew I had to bleed the system to get the air out.

I followed this guide on bleeding the clutch: http://forums.s2kca.com/showthread.php?t=12154

I had a friend help me bleed the clutch and I thought we were finished when I saw fresh fluid exiting the bleeder valve but the engagement point for the clutch is now all the way at the bottom instead of at the top. The clutch engages the instant I start to release the clutch pedal from the floor and grabs only a couple inches up leaving the rest for pedal-play room.

I know this isn't right and I was wondering if there's an easier way to get air out of the slave cylinder other than just bleeding it till it's all out. I figured it might be unwise to unbolt it again, fill the cylinder with fluid and try and install it again.

Thoughts?

 

u can try gravity bleeding it which takes a loong time.

 

i would just keep bleedin it until you see no more bubbles

 

Yeah, I don't think gravity bleeding will help when air is in the slave cylinder. The bleeder valve points upward when you compare it to the cylinder so the only fluid that will 'leak' out will be from the reservoir.

 

i think to gravity bleed the slave cylinder you would need to unmount it from the trans

 

no need to unmount anything to gravity bleed, just hook up a hose and loosen up the bleeder screw. and it won't take a "long time", there isn't that much hydraulic line between the master and slave cylinders.

BUT if there is an air bubble somewhere stuck in a corner of the slave cylinder, gravity bleeding probably won't get it out. You could try picking up a vacumn bleeder from an autoparts place and try using that to bleed it.

The bleeder valve points upwards, which means that the slave cylinder has to fill up with fluid first before the fluid is going to come out of the bleeder valve.

 

It takes 5 min to gravity bleed it. And no u cant bleed it if u unbolt it from the tranny.

 

Again, gravity bleeding is only going to work for fluid flowing down from the reservoir, not sideways from the clutch slave cylinder. If there's air in the cylinder it has to move down to exit the tiny pin-hole and then go back upward to exit the bleeder valve; which I don't see the former happening since air is less dense than liquid.

I might be able to try to let the air bubbles in the slave cylinder escape by unmounting the slave cylinder and hanging it so the air bubbles move up and towards the bleeder screw.

 

Did you pump your clutch pedal? Some say new fluid can affect the engagement point.

 

I had my friend help me again tonight after help from Xviper on s2kca; I had misread a part of the instruction he posted. I went 5+ cycles of pushing fluid out before refilling the reservoir which was causing air to get into the system. This time around we did 3 cycles of pushing fluid out, refilled the reservoir, and continued until the system was flushed.

1 cycle being: Open bleeder valve, push clutch pedal down, close bleeder valve, life pedal up.

Clutch feels brand new again.