SUSP: One man clutch bleed

[blu35p4rr0w]

IMAGES ARE BEING EDITED. I WILL HAVE THEM POSTED SOON.

So, I've read and heard it said that it takes 2 people to bleed a clutch. Especially concerning our cars I've seen this all over the internet. I've even seen people say it's truly a 3 person job. One person pumping the clutch pedal, one adding fluid to the reservoir and one working the bleeder valve.

None of this is true. I will show you here that you don't need anyone but yourself. It's easy and it's a lot faster than the standard procedure to do it by yourself. This is somewhat reverse of what you're used to. If you'd like to skip straight to the bleeding you can click here.

Requirements:
[IMG][/IMG]
-A Ratchet
-An Extension
-9mm wrench(I used an adjustable wrench. Not recommended though.)
-10mm wrench
-10mm socket
-12mm wrench
-12mm socket
-17mm wrench
-Needle-nose pliers
-A Phillips-head screwdriver
-Dot 3 Brake Fluid

Master and Slave Cylinder Locations:


If you don't know where the clutch pedal is. Lord help us all.

[blu35p4rr0w]

Master & Slave Cylinder Removal

I haven't been keeping up with this. So here's a video replacing the master and slave in a civic. It's the same thing. Except for the fact that my method of bleeding the clutch is much easier in my opinion.

[blu35p4rr0w]

Bleeding The Clutch Cylinders

We begin by ensuring there is brake fluid in the reservoir and add fluid if it's low. This is a no-brainer. Go ahead and leave the cover off. You can watch the fluid while you perform each step, except for one & thats just the beginning of that step. Make sure to add more brake fluid if you get low at any point and in-between steps.

Step One:
-Grab the fork where your slave cylinders piston is resting and start compressing the piston. You will see air bubbles popping up in your reservoir. DO NOT TOUCH THE BLEEDER VALVE. Leave the bleeder valve tight. We'll get to play with that little nipple later. @_@

Keep pushing the rod in and pulling it out(that's what she said) until you no longer see bubbles coming up in the reservoir. Here's a crappy pic of a bubble in my reservoir.

No more bubbles? Good, top off the brake fluid and you're ready for the next step.

Step Two:
-Now we're going to pump the clutch pedal. Just keep pumping that sucker and eventually it will start to firm up and bounce back on you. Make sure you keep an eye on the reservoir every so often. I'd say every 20-30 pumps I would look at the reservoir and add fluid.

Once the pedal starts to push itself up a little on its own you can stand up and pump the pedal with your foot whilst watching the reservoir at the same time. Just make sure you pull the pedal up all the way before you push it back down. Do not stop pumping the pedal until it comes ALL THE WAY back up on its own. If you can pull on it and it comes up more than the pedal was pushing it, you still have some air in the master cylinder. KEEP PUMPING! (That's what she said?)

Step 3:
So now we've got the air out of the lines and out of the master cylinder. There may still be a little bit of air trapped behind the slave cylinder bleeder valve.
Hurray for you, now you get to play with the nipple. @_@

Ok grab ahold of the fork just like in the first step. This time you're going to put your 9mm wrench onto the bleeder valve. I used an adjustable wrench because I'm missing my 9mm wrench. Doing it the way I did can strip the valve and I don't recommend it. I did it only because I'm poor and have to walk everywhere until my CB is ready.

-Loosen the bleeder valve
-Compress the slave cylinder and hold it. (DO NOT LET IT DECOMPRESS OR YOU WILL SUCK AIR INTO THE LINES ALL OVER AGAIN.)
-Tighten the bleeder valve
-let the slave cylinder decompress
-repeat several times until brake fluid shoots out instead of just dribbling out. I did it 3 times and it was shooting out. Then I did it 3 more times just for good measure.

Step 4:
-Top off your reservoir and replace the cap. Now you can test it out. I put my phone into video mode and started recording with it fixed onto the slave cylinder while I pushed the pedal. This way I could watch the video and know for sure that the fork was being engaged.

Now, if that's all you needed to do, you can take it for a test drive.
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One important thing to know is that if your clutch free-play is not set up correctly you will not be engaging the clutch right. This will cause slippage. I included this in the installation section of this DIY. However, if you're only doing a bleed job; the measurement for pedal-stroke is 5.6 in. (142mm) and the measurement for pedal-height is 8.27 in. (210mm). Here's a diagram from Chilton. Just remember that the measurements on this diagram are for the prelude & not the Accord. So insert the accord measurments & you're good to go. I will make a picture to replace this link to be included with the removal/installation section.

[blu35p4rr0w]

Thanks, Sources, and/or Related Info

My thanks go out to:

-EricTheCarGuy for his awesome video on removing and replacing clutch hydraulics. You guys should suscribe to him if you have a youtube account. He's the man.

-Chilton for giving me the Clutch Pedal Free-Play measurements.

-deevergote for the awesome site. We should all thank this man.

[SN2BH22CB7]

Very..very good write-up!

[visualpoet]

This is an excellent write up, I even appreciated the humorous touches. A one man bleeder kit or a clear piece of hose (like aquarium air line) from the bleeder screw to a jar will save you from squirting brake juice everywhere. You can even set the jar up on the radiator support to make it easier to monitor from inside the car.




There's another way that worked better for me, just in case this doesn't work for some people. Another user (Monza) gave me the info when I couldn't get my new master and slave to bleed and build pressure.

Purchase a large syringe from your local parts store, remove the hose from the reservoir, loosen the bleeder screw, (attach the clear hose and jar if you're using them) Fill your syringe with brake fluid, insert it into the reservoir end of the hose (TIGHTLY or it's going to spray fluid back at you and dribble all over the bay under the reservoir) and force fluid through the system until you've pushed all the air out, tighten the bleeder, top off the hose and quickly reattach it to the reservoir again, then fill the reservoir. Hop in and pump the clutch to check for pressure. I'd been fighting with my damn system for a few days and just couldn't get it to build up pressure (It's not my first, so I was starting to think I had a bad part. I had literally spent HOURS trying to get it to bleed. He suggested I try the syringe and I was amazed. It made unhooking the master from the pedal the hardest part of the job)

[blu35p4rr0w]

It's not finished. I was going to finish it last night but I didn't. I'll get to the removal & installation then add the other pics. I did the pics with paint at work. Would be better quality if I still had the digital camera my ex-fiance walked off with & I did it in GIMP. Oh well. It works. I'll bump for completion when I finish it.

Oh and deev. If you're reading this & still need your clutch bled. LOL You can do it in your driveway by yourself in like 30 minutes this way.

[blu35p4rr0w]

"A one man bleeder kit or a clear piece of hose (like aquarium air line) from the bleeder screw to a jar will save you from squirting brake juice everywhere. You can even set the jar up on the radiator support to make it easier to monitor from inside the car."

"It made unhooking the master from the pedal the hardest part of the job"

Yes, but if you're like me. You don't care about squirting brake fluid. LOL The only time I squirted any brake fluid was during the last step. and I only did it six times. Thats not that much.

In my opinion, unhooking the master from the pedal WAS the hardest part. Pumping the pedal? Didn't take me long at all. I had the clutch fully bled in under 30 minutes doing it this way both times I did it. I guess there was an air bubble in there that refused to come out for you.

Anyone who's wondering, my CB doesn't have the radiator or anything in my way. That's how I got those angles. You do not have to remove the radiator. I did it with the radiator in & a/c lines in the way the first time I did it. I only did it a second time because I just replaced my clutch. I don't think you need the radiator out to drop the transmission either. I just did it because I stripped everything from the interior including the heater core(pain in the ass to do). Didn't want any coolant gushing everywhere so I drained the coolant. Then I pulled the radiator because I wanted to do some cleaning in the bay too.

[visualpoet]

Yes, but if you're like me. You don't care about squirting brake fluid. LOL The only time I squirted any brake fluid was during the last step. and I only did it six times. Thats not that much.

In my opinion, unhooking the master from the pedal WAS the hardest part. Pumping the pedal? Didn't take me long at all. I had the clutch fully bled in under 30 minutes doing it this way both times I did it. I guess there was an air bubble in there that refused to come out for you.

Anyone who's wondering, my CB doesn't have the radiator or anything in my way. That's how I got those angles. You do not have to remove the radiator. I did it with the radiator in & a/c lines in the way the first time I did it. I only did it a second time because I just replaced my clutch. I don't think you need the radiator out to drop the transmission either. I just did it because I stripped everything from the interior including the heater core(pain in the ass to do). Didn't want any coolant gushing everywhere so I drained the coolant. Then I pulled the radiator because I wanted to do some cleaning in the bay too.

I care about squirting brake fluid just because I like my bay to sparkle as much as possible, and I like my painted parts to stay painted. lol (I did kill some grass with the old dirty fluid though.)
I had almost as much trouble getting the pedal reconnected as disconnected. They couldn't have desiged that a little better? It took me 20 minutes to get the pedal disconnected and about the same to connect it, maybe 15 minutes to replace both the master and slave, then I spent over eight hours (spread out over several days) trying to get it bled. I was really getting pissed. I've never needed more than an hour to replace and bleed out the clutch hydraulics before on anything I've done. lol

[blu35p4rr0w]

I care about squirting brake fluid just because I like my bay to sparkle as much as possible, and I like my painted parts to stay painted. lol (I did kill some grass with the old dirty fluid though.)
I had almost as much trouble getting the pedal reconnected as disconnected. They couldn't have desiged that a little better? It took me 20 minutes to get the pedal disconnected and about the same to connect it, maybe 15 minutes to replace both the master and slave, then I spent over eight hours (spread out over several days) trying to get it bled. I was really getting pissed. I've never needed more than an hour to replace and bleed out the clutch hydraulics before on anything I've done. lol

Yeah, that 30 minutes I'm talking about is the bleeding. Not the removal. It took me about 20 minutes to get the pedal disconnected and same for reconnected as well. The replacing the master cylinder about 15 and the slave cylinder was about 5. The slave cylinder is the easiest thing to replace in the whole ordeal.