i havent been able to easily bleed all of the air out of my clutch system, nothings leaking its just hard. ive tried everything and mabye every tool out there to do it to no avail. then i got fed up and made a tool, heres what doesnt work

gravity bleeding, tandem(one guy pumps, one guy cracks the valve) or any variety of tandem bleeding), and suction bleeding. ive also tried bleeding it most of the way and cracking the bleeder every day to get the airbubbles slowly, doesnt work.

what does work is take an old master cylinder resivoir cap, drill a hole in it and the rubber seal and then GENTLY blow air into the hole with an airblower, this forces the air out of the bleeder into a bottle or the ground without reintroducing any air into the system(unless you run out of fluid, so dont). i pumped a hole bottle of dot5 though my system to clean it out of the last 20 years of bad bleeding and dot3 and as soon as i shut the bleed screw the pedal was firm and solid. i can also feel when the pressure plate pops out(spec stg 3, should be very noticable) which i couldnt do before because air would just stay in the system.

hope this helps,

Good idea!

Did you set your air pressure at a certain level? I don't think I want to use 90 psi of shop air.

There you go! That's a variation of my dust-off air can pressure bleed in my post.

[This message has been edited by Dodgerunner (edited 10-06-2008).]

Just make these two tools and you will be set.

Pressure bleeding will undoubtedly work well but so will my method. We use a vacuum pump and have had great success with it. Just use teflon tape on the bleed fitting to insure that no air gets back in at this location and use a tight fitting hose.
I like the idea of the homemade caps with the fittings on them. Look easy to make and they must be effective as well. I would guess that the fittings are sealed to the covers with JB Weld or did you find a special nut and a rubber washer to use?.

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87GT - 3800SC Series III engine, 3.4" Pulley, N* TB, LS1 MAF, Flotech Exhaust Autolite 104's Custom CAI 4T65eHD w. custom axles, HP Tuners VCM Suite.
87GT - 3.4L Turbocharged engine, modified TH125H
" I'M ON THE LOOSE WITHOUT THE JUICE "

I have a tool that bleeds out the brakes on all German cars and iroically, the clutch reservoir on the Fiero has the same top as the German cars. When I bleed out the clutch, I use DOT 4 brake fluid and have an assistant pump the pedal while the bleeder is open and the pressure is hooked up. one all the air is out, I let is bleed for 30 seconds with no pedal activation and then close the bleeder. Then I remove the pressure bleeder and with my fluid sucker thingy, I remove the excess fluid and set it to the proper level.
Never had to rebleed a Fiero yet and it takes about one liter of fluid and 15 minutes including setup and cleanup time.
Dave

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1987 GT (my toy-see above), 1987 GT (daily driver), 1986 SE with a VW VR6, certified master technician/shop owner
www.njautobahn.com

Here's a similar pressurization device from another thread.

so.. if anyone wants to sell me those parts fieroguru posted.. I"d buy them. Just saying.

http://store.motiveproducts...978&Count2=499366402

im not going to claim i invented the method of pressure bleeding. i had to do a slave cylinder on a saab 9000, the gay one(well, they all are) with the clutch in the front of the motor and the trans is the oil pan. apparenlty thats the only way to bleed the clutch.

i found at least on my car that any form of suction bleeding woudlnt work, i suspect small holes somewehre but i cant find the damn things, i rebuild the master and slave cyl, and the slave cyl is heat shielded with a reflective wrap, the exhasut is wraped, and theres a metal panel seperating the two. the line isnt leaking cause i cant find a leak.

it does work the best though, for me, though my car also doesnt like to have the cooling system burped like other people can do. when my car burps it can and will shoot coolant over 12ft in the air so i must vac the system down with my snapon radkitplus

quote Originally posted by Formula88: http://store.motiveproducts...978&Count2=499366402

This would be easy enough to make with a el cheapo garden sprayer (if you can pump it up enough).

[This message has been edited by Mickey_Moose (edited 10-04-2008).]

lots of useful info in this post. thanks and fav'd!

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1987 Fiero GT built by my brother, merlot566jka, 3500 LX9 from 06 Malibu, WOT-TECH.com 1280 grind stage 3 cam, LS6 valve springs, 1227730 ECM conversion, Darrel Morse solid aluminum cradle mounts, Truleo headers modified to fit the 3500, 36# inectors, 70mm 4.3 throttle body adapted to 3500 intake, ported heads, upper and lower intakes, lightly polished, tcemotorsports.com crank trigger wheel, CenterForce dual friction clutch, Flowtech Afterburner muffler, 2.5" piping, cat deleted, EGR deleted, SinisterPerformance tuning, C6 Corvette exhaust tips. projected to be 35 MPG with a guesstimate of 250 hp at the motor

Gonna ask some novice mechanic questions.

I understand the idea, but how much pressure would you apply through the hose.. and how would you be able to control the pressure, I mean one could always just throw the end of an air hose from an air tank on there, but thats not exactly controlled is it?

I'm sorry, just never had much experience with this sort of thing. And I'm thinking this is a great method to bleeding the clutch system and I'd like to impliment it.

well when i check the motive website i went and found their instructions.

http://www.motiveproducts.com/10instruct.html

according to them they say no more than 20psi. after you do a leak check of your adapter at 10psi

Here's my version if a pressure clutch bleed. Posted this a while ago. BTW: the clutch pedal still has zero play in it !!!!!!

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[IMG]



Trueleo.com/fiero.htm
RSpiderII@aol.com

I've always found that gravity bleeding works (never had anything else work though). I just park on an incline so the front of the car is higher than the rear. Then I open the bleeder valve for a couple of seconds, and at the same time I push the pushrod back in the slave cylinder. Before letting go of the pushrod I close the bleeder valve. I found that this actually moves the fluid at a decent pace. Your technique isn't bad but most people don't have air compressors.

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http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymot...6QQitemZ280271060676


will the above work? The connector looks prety uh... odd?

I also found this one, which looks like the proper one, I wanted to go with the above one though.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymot...6QQitemZ220278859808

for the last 4 or 5 years, i have only gravity bled the system on level ground.
sure it takes 30 minutes or so, but it works for me.

This is a great idea! Vacuum bleeding SUCKS!

i think gravity bleeding only works if your system survived 20 years. some people here have it work every time while others are still frustrated. i found that even after an hour of gravity bleeding(aside from being boring) i still couldnt get all the air out and the pedal would take some pumping to get it going the next day. after the pressure bleed its been solid for days now.

i think the air sits in hundreds of little bubbles on the lowest point of the clutch line under the body, gravity bleeding is slow enough the fluid can just go around the bubbles instead of displacing them.

quote Originally posted by Dennis LaGrua: Pressure bleeding will undoubtedly work well but so will my method. We use a vacuum pump and have had great success with it. Just use teflon tape on the bleed fitting to insure that no air gets back in at this location and use a tight fitting hose.

Vacuum bleeding usually works great... but for the Fiero, only on the factory slave cylinders. The aftermarket cylinders for the Fiero have a one-way umbrella seal which cannot seal against positive pressure on the outside of the cylinder.
When you pull a vacuum, it just sucks in air through the piston seal instead of sucking fluid out from the master.

Most people have aftermarket slave cylinder pistons, which is why vacuum bleeding is "unreliable" (it's really just the slaves that were poorly designed and built)...

There was a post a few months ago about using an MR2 slave cylinder piston in the Fiero Isuzu/Muncie slave. The aftermarket MR2 slave cylinder uses a double seal piston so it can seal against pressure in both directions. By installing one of these on a Fiero you can reliably vacuum bleed the system. There are no good pistons available for the Getrag slave, so many of us are out of luck.

And don't forget this helpfull bit of info on a slave fix...

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/076049.html

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/082567.html

quote Originally posted by MetroMatt: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymot...6QQitemZ280271060676 will the above work? The connector looks prety uh... odd? I also found this one, which looks like the proper one, I wanted to go with the above one though. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymot...6QQitemZ220278859808

anyone have an answer for this?

quote Originally posted by MetroMatt: anyone have an answer for this?

Yeah That kit will only do the brakes. if you look at the motive web site, http://store.motiveproducts...03&Count2=639167428, you can spend an additional $25 on the round adapter there or find the American bleeder on ebay which will do both clutch and brakes

dont know if anyone has seen this yet. http://www.bmw-m.net/TechProc/bleeder.htm i still have yet to make one but im sure it would be a big help! let me know if any of you try it out.

Will someone clarify for me, who has knowledge of the adapters and correct things for the fiero

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymot...1QQitemZ280270017761

thats the one I need to do the clutch right? It looks right, but I'm not sure if theres TWO separate places to bleed the entire clutch system. I'm still over here 8000 miles away from the car so I cant pop the hood.

Matthew Hanson
101st

Please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't DOT 5 bad for the Fiero's Hydraulic systems? I think I heard that but I'm not sure. I also think that DOT 5.1 is compatible. But please double check me because I may be completely incorrect on this.

quote Originally posted by MetroMatt: Will someone clarify for me, who has knowledge of the adapters and correct things for the fiero http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymot...1 QQitemZ280270017761 thats the one I need to do the clutch right? It looks right, but I'm not sure if theres TWO separate places to bleed the entire clutch system. I'm still over here 8000 miles away from the car so I cant pop the hood. Matthew Hanson 101st

Bump for your morning, good morning america! Anyone have an answer by looking at the link and knowing about clutches?

2 places? You should only need to use the bleeder on the slave. I am unaware of any other bleeders.

If you are bleeding your clutch every year you either need a slave, or master IMO, after replacing both of mine, no leaks or need to bleed again in 2 years so far.

quote Kit #0250 includes Power Bleeder Pro, #1100 adapter for European (Ate) systems and Tilton, #1101 adapter for most American (post 1985) and Japanese vehicles (and all cars with up to 3-1/2" diameter reservoir caps), and #1105 adapter that works with American cars and trucks with rectangular reservoirs up to 4-1/4" x 6-3/4" and Chrysler dual reservoirs with dual round fill caps.

Thought i'd bring the information here. This will work to bleed the fiero clutch correct?

I've always been astonished by the lengths people go through to bleed their clutch and brake hydraulic systems. I've always been able to get the job done with a one-man bleeder kit (which is basically just a cup with a hose attached to it, and costs under $10). I guess I'm just lucky.

Me too kinda, but I just did the
'open bleeder -push pedal down -close bleeder- let pedal up, repeat, then open bleeder while squeezing slave with hand-close bleeder-let slave relax" method.
Drive and repeat, about 3 times. ***add fluid to reservoir during this process so it does not go empty.

I didn't try a bleeder kit of any kind yet.

[This message has been edited by 2.5 (edited 10-17-2008).]