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Positively remove all the air from your clutch hydraulics on the first try

13K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  AWD V8 
#1 ·
Dedicated to all of you who have spent hours bleeding your clutch and are about ready to torch your ride!

Not a short post but it is what is needed to do the job just one time properly and keep your sanity. Follow it carefully and you should be good.

I have a system that works perfect and guaranties no air, but some may find it a bit tedious or expensive, but then what option do they have when everything they have done for the last 4 hours has not worked. I am using a pressure bleeder some may find expensive, however you may be able to fab something yourself. All you need is a sealed container that you put brake fluid in and create pressure and force fluid out into a hose. Maybe a plastic syringe?

Preparation
You will need some clear 3/16" plastic tubing, about 7-8' will do. Home Depot has it.
You will need about 3" of 3/16" brake line tubing, just a scrap.
An off-set 10mm wrench would make your life easier.


Step 1
Modifying the bleeder screw so you can attach a tube for bleeding.
Insert the brake line tubing into the bleeder while the slave cylinder is installed in the transmission.

Determine how long exactly it needs to be. On a 4wd a brace to the transfer case runs right in front of the bleeder, how nice of GM to do this for us! You need to remove this brace to access the bleeder. The tubing you inserted into the bleeder should not stick out past the bell housing more than 3/4" or it will hit the brace. Mark the tubing and cut.

Braze the tubing to the bleeder screw. Don't worry, it's all metal and nothing will be damaged.


Only extends this far, 3/4"


Reinstall the bleeder and snug up.

Step 2
Next detach the clutch master from the firewall. On a 2nd gen like mine it twists clockwise a 1/4 turn to release it from the firewall. To get access to the MC you will need to unbolt your ABS and fuse relay center, 3 bolts on each. Use a bungee cord or wire to pull them to the front and out of the way. I wired mine to the hood prop. You may also have a vacuum hose and wire connector that runs over the MC and can be undone and moved for access to. Now you have room to work.


Grab the MC and twist it right and it will release from the firewall. Gently pull it forward. Now you can begin bleeding.


Step 3
It helps a lot to have the front of the truck tilted up as high as you can safely go, but not to an extreme.

a) Attach plastic tubing to the bleeder on the slave cylinder, long enough that you can bring it up and through the driver's wheel well.
Run the hose over the frame and out the driver's wheel well. Have it raised above the bleeder so the air coming out will rise and not be trapped in the tubing, about to the top of the tire. Open the bleeder now if not already open.


Top up the master cylinder with clean brake fluid.

Always keep the hose inclined upwards so that air is not trapped in the hose, like an IV. Follow the air bubbles and see that they move to the end of the tubing.

When the fluid reaches the end of the hose insert your pressure bleeder, making sure that you have purged the air out of it first so when you connect it to the tubing no air is trapped.

b) Now gently surge little pulses of fluid into the tubing, NOT a rush of fluid.
Fluid will not start going backwards through the clutch hydraulics.

Monitor the fluid in the MC so it doesn't overflow, suck some out as needed.

c) Gently pull the MC forward and tilt it up at the front. You should see some very tiny air bubbles coming up, this may take several minutes. Be patient, this is not hard it just takes time. You are done when you have injected a fair bit of fluid and not seen air bubbles coming up in the reservoir. If you rush you will not get all the air out.


Now close the bleeder and tighten with a wrench.

Attach the MC to the firewall. Tilt to the right 45º, push an feel for he MC to slip into the firewall. Rotate counterclockwise and you are good.

Try the pedal and see how it feels. If it's not good, then bleed some more. If it's good, then remove the tubing and tighten the bleeder.

You do not need to touch the clutch pedal to bleed this. Pumping the clutch pedal DOES NOT remove the air trapped in the master cylinder, only reverse pressure bleeding with the master cylinder removed and tilted up.

Remember to reconnect the vacuum hose and wire connector.

Expect this to take about 10-15 minutes.

You have now removed as much of the air as possible. I'm afraid their are no short cuts to bleeding the clutch.

Not a short post but it is what is needed to do the job just one time properly and keep your sanity. Follow it carefully and you should be good.

So the deal here is that I have a proven method to remove practically all the air from the hydraulics. By GM's wonderful design it is not possible to remove all the air unless you were to remove and refill all the components individually.

I realize that you all can't justify spending $200 just to bleed your trucks clutch, but if you are motivated you can find something else that can do this. A large plastic syringe connected to the tubing will work, I just don't need to do that so I haven't researched options. Heck, if you could locate a used IV bag that could work too. Let's post up some options now that we have something that we KNOW will do the job. It's sometimes hard to justify time and money hoping that something will work, now you have this to go on.

A video to watch, I bought my Phoenix Pressure bleeder off ebay, it is as good as they say.


Someone can fix the Youtube link in a following post if you wish.
 
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