• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

TR2/3/3A Bleeding the clutch slave cylinder trick?

Share this page

K

karls59tr

Obi Wan
Bronze
Country flag
Offline
Anyone remember what the easy gravity bleed trick was for the slave cylinder? Was it to remove the cylinder from the bracket and just let it hang down with the bleeder open over night? I need to change out the ancient brake fluid as well.....I have heard that it is unnecessary to bench bleed the MC. Any thoughts on this. Karl
 
I've done it but I don't know of any approved method. As I recall I simply filled the reservoir and opened the bleeder screw and left it that way for a couple of hours then secured the screw. It dripped very slowly and worked for me. The reservoir never went dry.

Tom
 
TomMull said:
I've done it but I don't know of any approved method. As I recall I simply filled the reservoir and opened the bleeder screw and left it that way for a couple of hours then secured the screw. It dripped very slowly and worked for me. The reservoir never went dry.

Tom
Click to expand...
Thanks Tom. Good to know that works. Apparently some methods leave air trapped in the slave cylinder.
 
If thereā€™s someone to help, can the clutch cyl be bled just like the brakes? Up down up down?
 
Anything that works for the brakes will work on the clutch. I am fond of cracking the bleeder, putting a length of small diameter clear hose over it, putting the other end in a clear container of fresh fluid and pumping the pedal. When the bubbles stop, you're bled. Make sure the bleeder is on the top of the cylinder when you bleed. Otherwise you will entrap air.
Bob
 
Last edited:
Iā€™ve always heard that about positioning the bleeder, but how do you get a bleeder apparatus up that high, and donā€™t you need another person to hold the pedal to the floor firmly while you close the bleeder screw before letting the pedal back up again?
 
No. Any suction when the pedal is released just sucks fluid out of the lower container. And what do you mean by "up that high"?
Bob
 
Iā€™ve seen instructions, particularly with the one man bleeder kits, that say that the reservoir bottle should be placed in a location above the brake caliper. In your post you say make sure the bleeder is above the cylinder. Do you mean bleeder reservoir bottle must be above the cylinder? The hose end inside the bottle must be above the cylinder?

Iā€™ve never been able to use those kits, and the bleed, screw adapters are largely worthless. Iā€™ve been using a one man bleeder kit that creates a Venturi effect through compressed air from an air compressor. Even that has been a bit troublesome.
 
You don't need a "kit". The bleeder valve/nipple needs to be on the top side of the slave cylinder in all cases, having nothing to do with the bleeding method. There is no bleeder reservoir bottle. There is the under hood reservoir that feeds the master cylinders and there is a receptacle bottle into which the end of the hose is dunked for the purpose of the bleed. I usually put the receptacle bottle on the floor next to the door so I can watch the bubbles. And you don't close the bleeder valve on the slave until you are done.
Bob
 
The clutch is unique in that it is all down hill. That's why the gravity trick usually works. Sorry it didn't fr you.
 
Forget about "gravity" bleeding anything on a disk brake TR3. There are too many places the lines loop and make bubble traps. The clutch line literally goes up as it exits the master cylinder and then down to the slave. If you crack the bleeder fluid will exit, air will enter and form a bubble just above the master cylinder. TR6's are worse. You either need an assistant that can pump the pedal fast enough to make air go down faster than it tries to come back up the line, or a pressure bleeder. The pressure bleeder is most effective. Before such things were so readily available, my dad just got a rubber stopper and poked long Schrader valve through it. He then hooked up an old school tire pump and the weight of the T-handle created enough pressure to bleed the clutch. Obviously worked for the brakes too. I suppose it was a gravity powered pressure bleeder. It made bleeding a 5-minute job.
 
bobhustead said:
Anything that works for the brakes will work on the clutch. I am fond of cracking the bleeder, putting a length of small diameter clear hose over it, putting the other end in a clear container of fresh fluid and pumping the pedal. When the bubbles stop, you're bled. Make sure the bleeder is on the top of the cylinder when you bleed. Otherwise you will entrap air.
Bob
Click to expand...
For whatever it's worth, a trick I learned long ago: As you complete the bleeding via the pedal, pump that pedal a couple times using only the lower part of the stroke (rather than letting the pedal return completely). Sometimes it helps!
 
Back
Top