Clutch slave cylinder bleeding procedure
How to bleed clutch slave and master cylinder
When you change a clutch or clutch master cylinder you have to perform a clutch slave cylinder bleeding procedure. In many ways it’s not much different than the procedure to bleed a caliper or bleed a wheel cylinder. But car makers sometimes throw a loop into the mix, and I’m not playing words games. Sometimes the steel line to the clutch slave cylinder is bent in a loop that sits above the clutch master cylinder, making it very difficult to bleed because the air rises into the loop.
Just like the problems you can encounter when trying to bleed a caliper or bleed a wheel cylinder when you’ve got air in the brake line loops, you can pump the pedal all day and go through a gallon of brake fluid, you’re never going to get the air out.
How do shops do it? With a reverse bleeding tool. Instead of trying to force the air bubble down into the clutch slave cylinder, they use the tool to push fluid backwards—up into the master cylinder. That pushes the air bubble into the fluid reservoir.
Phoenix makes several styles of reverse bleeding tools costing up to $800. But they also make the Phoenix V-5 model for DIYers.
Follow the instructions with the tool and you’ll never have problems with brake, clutch, or ABS bleeding again.
©, 2015 Rick Muscoplat
Posted on by Rick Muscoplat