Ok, one more for the veterans. New clutch installed on 96 XJ 5spd 4x4, pedal feels soft and cannot shift thru the gears, attempted to bleed at the slave with no difference. Im beginning to feel like I know nothing about my XJ anymore, lol. Any suggestions on bleed techniques ? I have a feeling this is where Im messing up, everything fealt great before my TO bearing decided to grenade. I have no external leaks from the hydraulic system.
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CLutch bleed issues ...
- Thread starter JCWjeeper
- Start date
Matthew Currie
NAXJA Member #760
- Location
- Vermont, land of big clay
Clutches can be very hard to bleed because the volume from each stroke is so small. Vacuum usually works best for me. You might also just be able to "gravity bleed" it, by leaving the bleeder open for a while, and making sure that the reservoir stays full. Eventually it should flow through.
- Location
- Hartsville, South Carolina
External or internal slave?
- Location
- Alexandria, NJ
Don't know if this "re-statement of the obvious" will help you or not, or make you feel any better, but we just got finished replacing my blown plastic clutch line (and plastic OEM M/C) with a metal line AND a metal ('87) M/C.
Long story short, we had to bleed, and bleed, and bleed, and bleed, and bleed . . . . and then bleed some more to FINALLY clear all the air from the system - now she works great again.
All forms of bleeding - gravity, bleeder screw and pedal pump coordination, vacuum pump - it just took a long,long time (and several ounces of fluid) to do it right and get rid of those damn teeny bubbles.
And one more obvious thing, REALLY make sure your connections are tight, it only takes a tiny air leak and you're SOL!
HTH.
Mike in NJatriot:
Long story short, we had to bleed, and bleed, and bleed, and bleed, and bleed . . . . and then bleed some more to FINALLY clear all the air from the system - now she works great again.
All forms of bleeding - gravity, bleeder screw and pedal pump coordination, vacuum pump - it just took a long,long time (and several ounces of fluid) to do it right and get rid of those damn teeny bubbles.
And one more obvious thing, REALLY make sure your connections are tight, it only takes a tiny air leak and you're SOL!
HTH.
Mike in NJ
atriot:Thanks for the input, it is an external slave, the pos plastic one with the hard plastic line, I would love to know what engineer thought that was a good idea. I did a short gravity bleed on it this morning before work and got 2nd, 3rd, and 4rth gear, bought some more fluid on my way home and am going to gravity bleed it some more.
Ok, update. I gravity and force bled it a bit and Im getting alot of foamy spray when I force bleed it. I got 1st thru 5th, still hard to engage, but better than it was, but still no reverse. The plastic line that feed into the rear of this slave pivots and spins, I thought this was to prevent breakage, can anyone back that up ? or am I sucking air right there ?