As I continue to reassemble my friends XKE, I am now at the point of bleeding the clutch. I installed all new lines, new master and new slave. Not having any luck with getting the air out of the system. Here is what I have done so far:
Followed traditional 2 person job of push down clutch pedal, open slave bleed valve, close valve, let up on clutch pedal. No luck.
Followed the gravity method of opening up the valve for several days with the hope that gravity will provide the solution. No luck.
Tried the Moss Motors video idea of pushing down on the clutch pedal and then opening up the slave valve and manually pushing in on the slave pin in order to release the air pocket. No luck.
Tried an air compressor bleed product that āsucksā the air/fluid through the line at the slave bleed valve. I do get fluid coming through, but with air. No luck.
I have looked at ALL line connections and ensured that there are no leaks or rather getting more air into the system.
I ended up with an extra brake line so I ran it to the bottom of the slave and ran a new line from the top to a bleed nipple in the 3 inch trans opening. Now I can bleed it myself from the from the drivers seat and I think Iāve overcome the air issue by rerouting the lines to bleed from the top.
Not sure if your 120 has the same slave bleed issue as the etypes.
On both my cars Iāve re routed the in line to the bottom and made up a remote bleeder for the top. Iām away from the car so I canāt take photos. Itās admittedly an extreme solution, but itās for an extreme problem. I canāt recall - are you able to get a wrench on the in line at the top of the cylinder, and loosen it a bit? That would allow the air to escape as the fluid dripped in. Bleeder closed during this operation.
I have never once FAILED to properly bleed an E-Type clutch slave by gravity alone. If you really had the bleeder open for āseveral daysā, then something is VERY wrong. Mine will empty the reservoir in under 30 minutes. Get most of the air out by just pumping the clutch a few times, then opening the valve. Then just leave it open. You should get a steady drip. After 10-15 minutes, close the valve, and it should work. If you donāt get a good result, then Iād be looking for a hardware problem somewhere.
Working on My friends car I ran into this difficulty as well, on my two cars I had always bled them just as Ray suggested and it worked flawlessly however something was/is different on the car Iām working on now (new master and slave) and I donāt have a clue as to what it is. It started dripping and I though it was bled but nope, I finally got the air out of the system by using the vacuum AND having my wife press the pedal doing the usual āup-down-upā technique.
As an additional note the longer pushrod on her car did the trick Ray-Thanks again.
Cheers,
LLynn
If all else fails, bleed from bottom up. Using some type of squirt can/pump, connect it to the bottom bleeder with a rubber hose and pump the fluid up to the reservoir. This should force the air up and out.
Tom
After a few failed attempts at bleeding I found out the free play wrongly adjusted at the slave cylinder. Have you doublechecked your slave piston free play? There are different setups available. In the end, my bleeding was fine, the slave cyl. piston was set with the wrong spec.
I used a Motive pressure bleeder on the system. I connected the tube from the Motive to the metal pipe line that connects to the clutch master (normally this connects to the clutch hose reservoir). I pumped the pressure bleeder to 5 pounds of pressure. Lots of fluid comes out of the slave when I open the bleeder. This is good.
With the bleeder closed, when I pump the clutch pedal, itās like ā0ā pressure/resistance. No clutch pressure!
If all else fails, Iād send both units out to White Post or Apple to have them bore and sleeve the MC and SC rather than just rebuilding it yourself. All of my hydraulics have been through their shop and Iām please with their work. Also, I believe that there is a lifetime guarantee.
I want to confirm that I have the lines connected correctly.
I currently have the line closest to the firewall going to the slave.
I have the front of the clutch master going to the reservoir.
Is this correct?
Thanks again, Bob
Yes, those connections sound correct. Zero pressure seems odd, usually one would get some, just not a complete stroke. To my way of thinking, there are only three seals in the system. The slave cylinder has a cup seal. If it were faulty, it would leak onto the garage floor. The M/C has a cup seal. If it were faulty, it would leak into the floor boards by the pedals. Either of these could leak air in, but pressure bleeding should have eliminated that, at least short term. The other seal closes off the inflow of fluid from the reservoir. If that were faulty, you could have your symptom. When the pedal is pressed, if this seal were not closing, fluid would not build pressure to the slave, but instead simple push fluid to the reservoir. Can you see if, as the pedal is pressed, is there a slight flow of fluid into the reservoir? If so, that would indicate the failure. If failed, you said it was a new M/C. I would call the vendor on it.
As has been suggested, have you confirmed proper free play? It also does not sound like your problem, but I would want to be sure.
And since you have a pressure bleeder, bleeding bottom up would be easy.
Tom