bleeding clutch

rockcrawler_101

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OK so i have an odd one. Im doing a cummins conversion and i have a nv4500. I put in the ford clutch pedals and brand new master cylinder with a nice steel braided line down to the old nv4500 slave cylinder. I have been pushing on the pedal with my hand sense there is little to no resistance and the pedal will stick to the floor and i have to pull it back. Im wondering if the master dosent push enough fluid or if the slave is bad or if i just need to bleed it better. I took the line off at the slave to get some more fluid down the the slave. Thanks for any info or help.
 

rockcrawler_101

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activate the slave by hand? I pushed it in and out a couple times when i pulled it back out. I pulled the line off the slave and pumped the clutch till i got a decent amount of fluid each time i pressed it.
 

jwalterus

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Welcome to my personal hell LOL

You're learning first hand why we say to never disconnect a working master/slave setup, you always take them off in on piece.

That's actually the reason my truck went under the flood, the PO couldn't get the slave bled after replacing it.

It's a PITA, if you have ANY high spots in your line, it's going to collect air, surprisingly, the easiest way I've found to get it bled is to put a vac pump with a small rubber nozzle into the hole inside the master and draw a vacuum in the line, then pull it out releasing the vacuum and letting the fluid rush into the line, let it sit for a while (half hour), then repeat. Once it gets a *little* pedal function, go under and tap on the slave for a couple minutes with a screwdriver handle, let it sit for a few minutes, then start tapping the line itself from the top, if you are watching in the master reservoir, you'll be surprised how many bubbles start to flow up the line into it.

Did I mention it's a PITA? Make sure you don't oversnug the slave bleeder screw at any point, I found this out the hard way and had to start all over with a brand new slave cylinder.
 

rockcrawler_101

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thanks for the tips. I was able to get it to act like a normal clutch by feel but haven't started the truck yet so we will see. I took the slave off and pointed it strait down and pushed it in all the way by hand and released. Did it several times and it seemed to have done the trick. Thanks again!
 

Roil Burner

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Glad that worked for ya.. my turn now after the ZF swap and same symptoms. Without the vacuum pump tonight might be hell! Thanks for updating us on that back then.
 

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