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silly question about clutch bleeding
blakep82 - 10/6/09 at 03:53 PM

having never done it before, i can't work something out...

can a clutch be bled with the gearbox out of the car? i can't get to the bleed screw on mine when its connected to the car? my plan is to disconnect the gearbox, push the clutch nose in all the way, bleed the clutch and reconnect to the engine.

sound feasable?

flak monkey - 10/6/09 at 03:57 PM

Yep you can do it while its not mounted. Once its bled and there is not air in the system the system is sealed. No different to unbolting calipers to bleed them then refitting after...

You also wont need to push the nose in, no need to.

blakep82 - 10/6/09 at 04:07 PM

even better so the nose will push back in ok when refitting? i was just worried about it sort of going solid.

brack pads need to be held back though don't they? otherwise you can get the disc between them?

flak monkey - 10/6/09 at 04:08 PM

Umm actually yes you will need to hold the nose back when bleeding because you cant get to your bleed screw at all. Shouldnt be a major problem though...if you dont you wont be able to push the fluid back the 'wrong' way through the m/c

Sorry

[Edited on 10/6/09 by flak monkey]

rusty nuts - 10/6/09 at 06:34 PM

Lot of work to take the engine out after finding you haven't bled the clutch properly! Might be worth making up an extension pipe /hose to the outside of the bell housing to save future grief.

britishtrident - 10/6/09 at 07:01 PM

Yep make an external bleeder up all you need is a section of standard brake pipe with a female tube nut and bleed nipple on the outside.

02GF74 - 10/6/09 at 08:01 PM

quote:
Originally posted by flak monkey
Yep you can do it while its not mounted. Once its bled and there is not air in the system the system is sealed. No different to unbolting calipers to bleed them then refitting after...

You also wont need to push the nose in, no need to.


i'm confused here - surely you need to do something to prevent the slave piston being pushed out? You cannot rely on he little circlip/sping slip to do that as if bleeding brakes off the disc, you would put in a spacer to stop the pistons from popping out - or am I missing something here?

deffo fit an extension pipe with nippe or hose to make bleeding easier in future.

flibble - 10/6/09 at 08:08 PM

Just a quick warning on what happened to me a few months back - and as 02GF74 said, I was bleeding my Omega cylinder with the gearbox out of the car and on the 1st push of the pedal the cylinder burst itself open, hard lesson learnt, second cylinder i made sure I had some welding clamps holding it back when bleeding - worked pretty well.
When the box/engine was in the car the pedal did still feel a little spongy so I bled it by just cracking a joint near the master cylinder while slowly pushing the pedal down and it firmed up instantly.

clairetoo - 10/6/09 at 08:12 PM

Dead easy to do - just push the piston all the way in with the bleed nipple loose , tighten it and let the piston out slowly - it will suck fluid in from the master cylinder .
Dont be tempted to press the pedal without it being all fitted to the engine - it will push the piston clean out of the cylinder and onto the garage floor...........