I have a small block Chevy with a Muncie 4-speed with a hydraulic clutch. The slave cylinder is a full system from Novac, with the master cylinder from Wilwood. The system worked fine prior to me doing a motor swap, and now I can't--for the life of me--get the clutch bled! I have tried pretty much everything under the son. I have the adjustment rod fully extended. I have managed to get to clutch to disengage once, after over an hour of bleeding--only to have what seems like a bleedback somewhere causing the rod to become so loose that I can practically remove by hand even though it was fully adjusted out. I spoke to Novac, and they say it can't be the slave cylinder because I would see fluid leaking from it--which I did not. I also spoke with Wilwood--they told me that it sounds like there's air in the lines. They said to make sure to bench-bleed the master, re-***emble everything and that I should be good to go. Well, I did, and well... I am not. It's still not working. It may sound crazy, but I'm going on four days with this clutch. It's making me nuts. Sorry for the long post, but any help will be greatly appreciated.
i used to bleed the brakes on one of my harleys with ethe motor running, the vibrations caused the bubbles to loosen up in the lines. after 4 days you might try anything
Have you changed the routing of the line? Almost sounds like having a "P" trap in a water drain line. Make sure your line has a gravity flow no places running back up hill. Can you enginneer some way to pressurize the M/C ?? Also make sure the M/C piston is returning all the way.
Ok, what is the method you are using to bleed the system? step by step. Clutches are usually pretty easy to bleed so it may help solve the problem if we know what steps you are using.
Who's on the other end? Or are you doing the pumping & bleeding by yourself? I am ***uming you are doing both---So, after filling MC on firewall, pump pedal 2-3 times, hold pedal down on floor, pop bleed valve just enough to let out a very small amount of fluid & close quickly, repeat this process until you observe slave cyl. rod beginning to move, also remember to keep re-filling MC as level goes down, otherwise you will get the condition you are now in!----Don
At work (I restore vintage British tin) , we sometimes have great issues bleeding clutches . When we do , we break out the EZ-Bleed (can't remember exact spelling) . It attatches to a tire & uses tire pressure to pressurize the master cylinder & makes it a one-man process . If that doesn't do the total trick , have a second person pump & hold down the pedal along with the EZ-Bleed to force that last little bit out .
Is your MC under the floor or on the firewall (or someplace else relativly high)? Did you reseal either the MC or Slave? sounds kind of like you have a seal in backwards. Or a pinhole in a line somewhere. +1 on making sure your MC is returning fully I tend to use a MightyVac if I have problems bleeding brakes or a Hydraulic clutch. I take it from your description this is the push cylinder as opposed to their pull cylinder. FWIW I just swapped out the master in my A (in a parking lot in Ely Nevada). I was able to bleed the system before I put the MC into the car. I have the clutch plumbed with a short length of -4 Teflon (Earls, w/ the stainless braid) so it was relativly easy to do. I was able to pump it up and hold it (hold the cylinder in one hand with the Pushrod up against my shoulder) and open / shut the bleeder with the other.
have you changed anything,parts wise,during the motor swap? a different pressure plate could cause the clutch to not allow you to bleed it totally. -danny
this is gonna sound dumb- but- did you put the clutch disc in the right way? a couple years ago when I put the wife's '56 Chevy back together I didn't pay attention to which way I put the disc in- no amount of adjusting or finagling, cussing, kicking etc, would give me enough clutch to put the trans in any gear while the engine was running. After all that bleeding you've done- adjusting and everything else- it might be time to back up a little.
My solution when bleeding my clutch was to disconnect slave cylinder at the clutch arm and push to rod to reverse bleed up through the clutch master cylinder. You can pump it with your hand.
Pump slowly. Also try the one man with a mason jar trick. Clean container 3 or 4 inches of new fluid in the bottom. Run a tube from the bleed ****** into the fluid. Anchor it down with a ip tied nut to keep the end uder the surface of the fluid. Now pump slowly till there are no air bubbles in the fluid coming out of the bleed ******. The fluid will allow air out and none back in. just pump slow and make sure the res stays full.
I did the reverse flow trick using a mighty vac and ****ed the fluid up through the slave cylinder and up the line up to the master. My slave cyl was slightly higher on the bleed valve end and I think the air was in there. Damn Austin Healey. It worked for me. After I was finished I lowered the car down and squished the plastic mighty vac container. I had placed it between the jacks wheels so it wouldn't move. The cap no longer fit. I called the company and explained my stupidity and wanted to buy a new cup. They sent me a new cup and lid, for no charge!
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