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Any tips for bleeding the clutch on a 2000 Chevy S10

CUCV2

CUCV2

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I am just finishing up a 5 speed swap into my S10 Blazer. It has a used 91K mile transmission and pedals from the same year donor vehicle. I bled the clutch by pumping the pedal three times, holding it down, cracking the bleeder, tighten bleeder, then releasing the pedal 5X. It worked for about a day and now I have no movement at all anymore. It still has fluid in the master and the slave and master are both new. I tried to rebleed it and get solid fluid out but no clutch action. I'm perplexed. I've read about bench bleeding but am unclear on how that works with an internal slave cylinder. Any help is appreciated.
 
It is hard to bleed down air wants to rise. Get a large syringe, put a clear hose that will fit tight on bleeder nipple. Maybe a zip tie to hold hose on syringe.
Fill syringe with brake fluid attach to open bleeder screw, gently push fluid into slave cylinder, close bleeder remove hose.
Please be very careful do not inject brake fluid into your skin, you could die. Wear eye protection.
No one will tell you the above procedure, cause of the potential to hurt oneself.
 
Wes Harden said:
It is hard to bleed down air wants to rise. Get a large syringe, put a clear hose that will fit tight on bleeder nipple. Maybe a zip tie to hold hose on syringe.
Fill syringe with brake fluid attach to open bleeder screw, gently push fluid into slave cylinder, close bleeder remove hose.
Please be very careful do not inject brake fluid into your skin, you could die. Wear eye protection.
No one will tell you the above procedure, cause of the potential to hurt oneself.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the tip and the heads up on the brake fluid. I did see a reverse and power bleeder. Would that be a similar tecnique? The bleeder is shaped more like a 13mm nut but I believe the right size hose could provide a tight seal. I will go see what I can put together. Thanks again.
 
I had a '91 S10 that I replaced everything in the clutch once and had to pump the crap out of it and bleed it conventionally and it also helped to tap on everything with a wrench to get the air to rise up and out of the system. Just an FYI but if you ever replace master and slave a lot of the time you can get an assembly that is pre-filled and pre-bled.
 
I've had good like similar to Wes's suggestion, but instead of the syringe I just pull the piston out and completely fill it with fluid and push it all the way back in. Pushes all the air right out the top.
 
Truckman4life said:
I had a '91 S10 that I replaced everything in the clutch once and had to pump the crap out of it and bleed it conventionally and it also helped to tap on everything with a wrench to get the air to rise up and out of the system. Just an FYI but if you ever replace master and slave a lot of the time you can get an assembly that is pre-filled and pre-bled.
Click to expand...
Pre-bled and factory parts would have been nice. I went with Napa parts this time. They seem okay other than this and the hitch in the giddyup here is the learning curve of bleeding the clutch. The Blazer was nice to drive with the stick for the day I had it going, haha. My friend has a power bleeder that I'm going to borrow later today. Hopefully that gets it over the finish line.
 
bigblock454 said:
I've had good like similar to Wes's suggestion, but instead of the syringe I just pull the piston out and completely fill it with fluid and push it all the way back in. Pushes all the air right out the top.
Click to expand...
Can you pull the piston out once it is installed? I dissected the original one and it does seem possible if the replacement is designed the same way. The piston has a retainer clip that will only release if you take it all apart. I almost posted a build thread for this Blazer to help with scenarios like this one. Live and learn I guess. My progress on projects is just so slow, I thought I would save the CK5 community from my turtle like pace.
 
CUCV2 said:
Can you pull the piston out once it is installed?
Click to expand...

I don't see how you could accomplish this with it installed, you need to be able to completely fill the bore so it has to be facing upwards.

Still need to do the normal bleed method a few times afterwards after installed, but it's always worked for me to get it *primed*.
 
bigblock454 said:
I don't see how you could accomplish this with it installed, you need to be able to completely fill the bore so it has to be facing upwards.

Still need to do the normal bleed method a few times afterwards after installed, but it's always worked for me to get it *primed*.
Click to expand...
I may pull the master back out to do a bench bleed if I need a plan B... or maybe we are at plan H by now...
 
Something else: For whatever surface tension or fluid dynamics reason air bubbles can get *stuck* in the soft line at the transition point to the master cylinder reservoir. Take a pair of pliers and pinch the soft line just below the reservoir a few times, might help purge some more air out.
 
Update: I pulled the master back out and bench bled it and got way better pressure. Put it back in and bled the system from the slave bleeder like you would brakes. It at least works now but it is still hard to put it in gear at a full stop. Especially reverse. May need more bleeding but I repeated the process 5x already. I think I am going to pull the master off the firewall and try the process with the master pointed up a bit.
 
Just pump the ever livin' shit out of the pedal fast. It will get those last bubbles to pop free hopefully and head up to the res.
 
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