Subject: [Spridgets] Observations and impressions for bleeding the 1500 clutch system

From: "Richard Ball" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:10:44 -0800

Observations and impressions for bleeding the 1500 clutch system

There have been a few threads posted to the forums recently on problems
bleeding the 1500 Midget's Hydraulic clutch system.  Since I just recently had
similar issues I thought I would post my observations, impressions and
solutions.

A few weeks ago I went out to take the Midget for a spin up to the store and
was greeted by a non functioning clutch pedal.  After investigating a bit I
came to the conclusion that the slave cylinder had finally given out on me.  I
ordered an original Lockheed rebuild kit from Peter C., did a light honing
pass to clean it up and rebuilt it.  After getting everything back in and
buttoned up I called for my lovely assistant Susan (wife) and we set about
trying to bleed it.  Trying is the key here. We spent an hour plus and at
least a pint of LMA trying to get it working with no luck.

I see two areas in the system that contribute to problems bleeding in the
traditional way.

The first problem I needed to over come was the air that was trapped in the
arch of the line connecting the master to the slave.  On the 1500 the line is
a transparent tube that arches up before heading down to the slave.  The
problem I was having was that the volume of fluid being sent through the line
was not sufficient to move the air down the vertical rise.  The air bubble
would slide up past the fluid and back to the high point of the arch.  Phil
Jones came to my aid here by loaning me his Eezibleed system.  This
pressurized bleeder worked great and was able to move enough fluid under
pressure to move the air bubble out of the line.  Unfortunately it took up
residence in the slave cylinder.

The second problem I came across has to do with the bleed valve on the slave.
First off it is located slightly below the high point of the cylinder so any
trapped air can not flow out easily even with the rear of the car raised above
the front.   Adding to this is the limited space to rotate a wrench placed on
the bleed valve.   You're only able to open the bleed valve a slight amount to
release the fluid with a flair nut wrench and hose on the bleed valve.  This
low flow was not enough to force the air out of the slave.  What I found
worked well was to use a 7/16 box wrench that could slide off over a hose on
the bleed valve so I could reposition the wrench and rotated it again several
times. This allowed me to open the valve much wider.  This in combination with
the pressure of the Eezibleed to move the fluid cleared all the air that was
still trapped in the slave.

>From my experience the most successful way to bleed the clutch on the 1500
Midget is to have a high fluid flow rate so the air in the system gets caught
up with the fluid flow and pulled out along with it.

Sorry if this was long winded, but I thought it might be useful to others that
are having the same problem.

Rich Ball

'76 Midget
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[email-masked]

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