so I replaced the clutch and hydraulic system in my cavy ( brute power clutch kit, new master cylinder and new line). I have been trying like heck to bleed this system for the past 3 weeks. gravity, reverse, manual and vacuum bleeding. have replaced the slave and master cylinders twice now thinking that the new parts were defective. I now have the car put back together and cannot get it to shift easily into gear while running. I drive maybe a few blocks after bleeding with a mityvac and am running into the same problem over and over again. even after bleeding with the car jacked up at different angles ( from the front, rear, and even sideways) I can't seem to get anywhere with this thing. any help would be greatly appreciated at this point.
I also have an '05 Cav and I had no difficulty bleeding the clutch when the hydraulic line was chewed up by a frame member and I had to replace it.. (Good design GM, you saved a 1 cent plastic clip that would have prevented this, and would not have left my wife in the middle of the traffic without a clutch!)
Mind you, I had the factory master and slave cylinders.
How do you bleed your system?
I always do with another person helping, I ask him/her to step on the clutch/brake, keep it like that, and I open and close the bleeding valve. After that I ask again to let up the pedal and push down again, and bleed again. I so it till there are no bubbles in the liquid coming out.
This pumps out the air from the slave cylinder. When applying the pedal some oil goes into the slave cylinder, when opening the bleed valve and the pressure is released, the slave piston is pushed back by the clutch spring, and it pushes out the air, as the oil inlet into the slave cylinder is at the top.
A mighty vac or similar contraption would not extract the air from the slave cylinder, you need to exercise the slave cylinder to pump out the air from there!
You can also compare your slave cylinder to a factory one if it has the same configuration.
Good luck, Peter
it can be hard to get the air out of the slave with these type of slave design. I have tried a ford method that sometimes works.
pump the clutch 15 full strokes as fast as you can, hold to the floor on the last pump for 3mins.
after 3 mins, have someone crack the bleeder. close the bleeder and repeat.
good luck
Peter Orban wrote:I also have an '05 Cav and I had no difficulty bleeding the clutch when the hydraulic line was chewed up by a frame member and I had to replace it.. (Good design GM, you saved a 1 cent plastic clip that would have prevented this, and would not have left my wife in the middle of the traffic without a clutch!)
Mind you, I had the factory master and slave cylinders.
How do you bleed your system?
I always do with another person helping, I ask him/her to step on the clutch/brake, keep it like that, and I open and close the bleeding valve. After that I ask again to let up the pedal and push down again, and bleed again. I so it till there are no bubbles in the liquid coming out.
This pumps out the air from the slave cylinder. When applying the pedal some oil goes into the slave cylinder, when opening the bleed valve and the pressure is released, the slave piston is pushed back by the clutch spring, and it pushes out the air, as the oil inlet into the slave cylinder is at the top.
A mighty vac or similar contraption would not extract the air from the slave cylinder, you need to exercise the slave cylinder to pump out the air from there!
You can also compare your slave cylinder to a factory one if it has the same configuration.
Good luck, Peter
I have an 04 had same line get chewed up like his. Very stupid on GM's part and cost me over a 100$ just for the stupid line. I did just what he did pump clutch hold it down open and then close the bleed valve. Make sure that clutch line were referring to isn't cracked or worn through. This is HUGELY common on these cars and can happen in anywhere from 40-50k miles per cable if not sooner depending on driving habits.
Good luck,
Lee
