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Clutch fluid project report
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Posted by Bob Davis (more from Bob Davis) on Tue, 16 Oct 2001 17:34:22 Share Post by Email
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Some time ago I promised to take in everything I've read here, experiment, and report back on an ideal method for purging the clutch fluid. At that time I ran into some trouble, for one thing a bent and clogged slave-cylinder nipple, and I wasn't sure how to approach a fix. I found that the nipple was available separate from the slave cylinder and was a matter of just screwing the old one out and the new one in. I tied a string to each in case the nipple fell into the case, as access isn't ideal and I didn't feel like engaging in a fishing expedition.

There was some talk about using a hiking water bottle lid with a tire valve attached, but I decided against that method for two reasons: (1) The setup doesn't allow for air pressure build-up and (2) finding a top with the correct size and threads was problematic. Reason #1 was suggested by a seasoned crane mechanic I've known for about 30 years, and his suggestion made sense.

I ended up using the tried and true inner-tube trick, using a 21" tube (diameter = 2") acquired from my friendly neighborhood Harley-Davidson dealer. Many dealerships replace the inner tubes as a matter of procedure whenever a new tire is fitted, so they usually have several lying around that will eventually get discarded. I got mine free, cutting it about two feet long with the valve in the middle, sealing one end with hot glue, folding it over, and clamping it with a small photographic clamp I had in the studio. The other end was inserted over the brake reservoir filler opening and secured with a 2" clamp. Tighten firmly around the reservoir, but be careful, as you don't want to crack the plastic reservoir!

But first, fill the reservoir to the brim with DOT4 fluid! For some reason, as Quasi warned me about before the fact, if the level gets below about 1" from the top, air will be forced through. Since it isn't even near the "min" marker, I can't imagine how air is getting in, but it does.

I set my air compressor regulator to 20# to avoid over-inflating, and let the inner tube blow up moderately, but I didn't go as far as the full 20# from the compressor. Setting the regulator lower, maybe at 10#, would be even better--but I didn't experiment further with that. When pressure was applied, I loosened the slave-cylinder nipple with a clear hose attached to it, the other end dangling toward the garage floor atop some newspapers and a recepticle for the discarded fluid. The fluid will come out slowly but surely after loosing the nipple about 1/4 turn, but loosening too much will cause fluid to leak from around the threads. I bled about 8 oz. out, which was just a guess but the fluid being ejected looked clean, so I felt that enough had been purged.

I think this is a good, safe, fairly simple method of purging the fluid. Checking my work revealed that the clutch pedal fell limply to the floor, but after pumping about 20 times it regained its proper firmness. I'm not sure why the pedal collapsed, but it may have been when the air was allowed in when I let the reservoir level fall below that magic 1" level.

Thanks to Quasi and others for their help with formulating this procedure. It isn't far different from some other reports I've seen here, but I thought repeating the good ideas and adding some other details would be helpful to y'all. One assumption is that the reservoir filler is 1¾" in diameter, as it is on my '95 Aero, so check your diameter before trying to locate the inner tube!






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