In the process of bleeding my clutch system after replacing both the master and slave cylinders. Lots and lots of bubbles coming out, no end to bubbles in sight... but I noticed that a good way into bleeding, the clutch pedal became ultra stiff and hard to press, and master cylinder was making a spongy scrubbing sound when pressing the pedal in. Is the master cylinder a dud?
And how long does it usually take to get all the bubbles out of the system? They just keep coming, gone through at least 10 cycles of pressing clutch, opening bleeder, closing bleeder and letting clutch out again...
------------------ My Fiero: 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT, V6, 4-speed manual
Did you prefill and bleed the master cylinder and slave before installing them, if not it could take days. you really need to prebleed that before installing it. that noise may also be if you didn't prefill it and prebleed it because parts are dry.
best way to bleed these systems is with a pressure bleeder and easily made with a pump pot and a spare master cylinder cap.
I have had good luck with the gravity bleed. Raise the drivers side front of the car take out the slave cylinder bleeder screw and keep topping off the master when it get low until you have gone thru 4 refills and then when you top it off the fifth time put the bleeder screw back in. You will still need to press in the slave rod by hand with the bleeder valve open and hold it in then tighten the bleeder screw.
I didn't think to pre-bleed the master or slave, sounds like I better remove them and do that first... Banjo is installed pointing upwards as directed, so that shouldn't be the cause.
Starting to round off the slave bleeder screw a little from all the opening and closing, are these screws common parts that any store sells or is this a special RD part?
------------------ My Fiero: 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT, V6, 4-speed manual
the clutch pedal became ultra stiff and hard to press
The slave cylinder needs to be able to more it's piston. If it's piston gets fully extended, and your pedal is properly bled, your pedal will feel like it hit something and it is very hard to press. If you push it hard at that time you will bend you clutch pedal, or the master cylinder push rod.
So make sure the slave piston is not fully extended, and since it needs to be able to move at least 1 1/8" check to make sure the slave piston is pushed back that amount or more.
Leaving the slave push rod out will cause the slave piston to be fully extended.
I did not think of that! I hope I didn't bend it... would I be able to tell it's bent if the pedal is less than an inch above the brake pedal? And pushing the slave rod back in the bleed the slave would put it in the proper position, right?
------------------ My Fiero: 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT, V6, 4-speed manual
If the clutch pedal at rest is 1" above your brake pedal then your pedal and pushrod sound fine. If less then inspect both. Yes everything is correct in your bellhousing and throwout linkage just putting the pushrod back in will fix it.
btw when the pedal got hard, you had the bleed finished.
[This message has been edited by phonedawgz (edited 05-13-2014).]
I didn't think to pre-bleed the master or slave, sounds like I better remove them and do that first... Banjo is installed pointing upwards as directed, so that shouldn't be the cause.
Starting to round off the slave bleeder screw a little from all the opening and closing, are these screws common parts that any store sells or is this a special RD part?
always use a 6 point wrench when bleeding brake or clutch slave cylinders that keeps you from doing, just what you did, available at most parts stores as is the bleeder.
