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Clutch master bleed trouble


Faulty-one

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I have a 1990 ford bronco 2 with the 5 speed manual transmission, it has had clutch trouble since I bought it. I have tried to bleed it every way you can imagine, I bought a vacuum bleeder and have taken the master out ( it is a new one ) and turned it the opposite direction so the air could go up hill all to no avail. Any advice would be much appreciated.
 


85_Ranger4x4

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They suck.

Bench bleed it. Then let it sit a day so air can work its way up. I hung it from my garage ceiling with wire. Repeat for several days and I kept eventually getting more air out of it.
 

Faulty-one

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I’ll give it a try, thanks
 

R£D*R£APER

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I have an 85 and just replaced all clutch hydraulic components. I have read these are a real pain because of how the master is oriented on the firewall. So I took all the advice I had read and bled the system every way I could and it worked out just fine. I bled it at an opposing angle before mounting it up multiple times. Vacuum bled it from the slave multiple times. And I took my hand pump vacuum bleeder with the tiny cone shaped attachment, stuck that cone down the hole in the reservoir and put as much vacuum on it as possible (only got to 20) then pulled the cone out and the vacuum draws all the fluid down from the reservoir into the master and lines. After doing that 5 times I jumped in and went for a drive and everything was fine. I also spent a great deal of time wiggling the line and tapping it against the firewall to work all the bubbles up and out of the line. Tapping it alone was drawing a ton of bubbles up to the reservoir. Honestly I'm not sure of which method worked because I threw everything at it before I even tried the pedal.

Good luck with it.
 

Faulty-one

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Well I have tried just about everything imaginable and still no luck, even replaced the line from the master to the slave because I’m pretty sure it was letting air in, the pedal dose feel better but still won’t disengage the clutch. I know the slave is good because I was able to kinda drive it before I replaced the line, but I had to stop and bleed every time I wanted to shift. Any ideas?
 

R£D*R£APER

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Fkrst of all, Im no master mechanic. BUT Damn man. I hoped you'd figured this out.

You've gotta have air trapped or air getting in. Given the fact it kind of drives immediately after bleeding it sounds like it is letting air in. Did your new hydraulic line come with new o-rings?

How sure are you that the master is new?

Could very well be that the slave is compromised. If I was in your shoes and planned to keep the vehicle long term, I'd be replacing all of the hydraulic components that I didn't purchase and install myself. If you're going to go that far it'd be a damn shame not to just replace everything on the way in. It's the more expensive route, many would say it's a waste and it's overkill. Right or wrong though, it's what I did and would do in your shoes. If it's at all possible for you that'd be the route I'd go. If you have an extra set of hands just for the transmission removal and install the jobs really not bad.

If you're confident in the master, you already installed the new line (and o-rings) and you have bled the hell out of it then the slave sounds like the culprit.

Good luck bro.
 

Faulty-one

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Fkrst of all, Im no master mechanic. BUT Damn man. I hoped you'd figured this out.

You've gotta have air trapped or air getting in. Given the fact it kind of drives immediately after bleeding it sounds like it is letting air in. Did your new hydraulic line come with new o-rings?

How sure are you that the master is new?

Could very well be that the slave is compromised. If I was in your shoes and planned to keep the vehicle long term, I'd be replacing all of the hydraulic components that I didn't purchase and install myself. If you're going to go that far it'd be a damn shame not to just replace everything on the way in. It's the more expensive route, many would say it's a waste and it's overkill. Right or wrong though, it's what I did and would do in your shoes. If it's at all possible for you that'd be the route I'd go. If you have an extra set of hands just for the transmission removal and install the jobs really not bad.

If you're confident in the master, you already installed the new line (and o-rings) and you have bled the hell out of it then the slave sounds like the culprit.

Good luck bro.
Sounds like I’ll be dropping the trans, the master is good and the line is brand new with fresh o-ring, like you said the has to be air getting in somewhere because no matter what I do there is no end to the air, that being said the best I can tell there is no leak. I’m going to put my vac bleeder on it overnight and see if the pressure drops at all but might just be delaying the inevitable :LOL: thanks for all the help and I’ll keep you updated.
 

Faulty-one

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Sorry, I’ve been so long since I updated you, after another fun weekend of dropping a trans I replaced the slave for the second time and things seem to be working. Thanks for all the information and help.
 

R£D*R£APER

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Hell yeah brother. Glad you got it back up and running. Thats the weight of the world off your shoulders. Sucks having vehicle trouble. Hope you get a good run before anything else pops up on you.

Good luck to you and hope to hear from you soon.. Hopefully upgrades as opposed to fixing broken things. 😉 I hope to be there soon myself.
 

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