Okay, I finally got some time to summarize my experience with bleeding
a new clutch on the MKIII Midget.
I tried everything I could think of (which is not necessarily saying
much!) to get this thing to bleed. In the end, it was a matter of
experience which I did not have.
I installed the new slave and master cylinders with only a modicum of
curses applied to the two bolts. One against the frame on the slave
cylinder, and the other being the lower one on the clutch master
cylinder. I then poured DOT3 into the master cylinder, opened the
bleed valve slightly on the slave and started the old "pedal to the
floor and hold, close bleeder, let pedal up, open bleeder, repeat"
process. I've used this process before when bleeding hydraulic systems
successfully, but never for a totally empty system.
After querying these groups, I then read up on "bench bleeding"
(something I had never heard of before). Thanks to Brent, I was able
to "bench bleed" the master cylinder on the car (Your right, Brent. It
is a messy deal and I had lots of shop rags in place to keep the
DOT3 off the paint.) I went back to the bleed process above and still nada!
Next, I removed the hydraulic line from the end of the master
cylinder, opened the bleeder valve and tried to inject DOT3 into the
line (and eventually, hopefully, the slave cylinder) using a large
syringe. Did you know that DOT3 will destroy the rubber plunger seal
in a plastic syringe?? I didn't then, but I do now!! Anyway - that
process led to nothing either.
Finally, in desperation, I called a friend who is a mechanic and
bribed him with two pints of my homemade Irish Stout. He took one
look at my mess, handed me a 3/8 wrench for the bleeder valve and sat
down in the drivers seat where he then proceeded to pump the living
hell out of the clutch pedal, then had me open the bleeder. Low and
behold, air and then
frothy bubbles came out of the bleeder. Repeating this several more
times finished the job and I now have a completely new and working
clutch hydraulic system.
Two pints of Irish Stout was a small price to pay.
Anyway, I thought ya'll might want to know so you can LYAO at my
stupidity..... ;-)
Cheers!!
Jim - nursing his ego in Dodge City
--
1964 R60/2
1968 MG Midget
1976 R90/6
1990 K100LT
**Don't underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.**
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