Just had the trans rebuilt. Installed new clutch, pressure plate and re-installed the trans, transfer case, and drive shaft. All I have to do is bleed the clutch. It's a 4.9 L engine, concentric slave. I've followed the procedure in the manual and the pedal is just sponge. I'm suppose to push in the male end of the coupling at the end of the hydraulic line at the trans and while thats pushed in, the helper is suppose to push the pedal and hold it down, then I release the coupling. However, when I push in the coupling, fluid just leaks out - like there is no vacuum holding it in. Also, ate the end of the procedure, I'm supposed to loosen the bleed screw, helper push and hold pedal, and re-tighten bleed screw. When I do that, nothing comes out. Any ideas as to whats going on?

 

I would connect the hydraulic line to the slave instead of trying to bleed anything with the fitting. Open the bleeder, then push the pedal down, close the bleeder and pull the pedal back up. Repeat this until you get fluid out of the bleeder. Then pump the pedal a few times and hold it on the floor, then open and close the bleeder and pull the pedal back up. Repeat this until you have no air bubbles in the fluid coming out of the bleeder.

 

I found that if you bleed it till you get some fluid out, remember small amount of fluid in master, so refill often, then press the pedal to the floor and with bleeder open take a prybar and push in on the clutch fork, this will bottom out the slave and hopefully all the air, close bleeder, remove prybar and pump like crazy, should have firm and ready clutch pedal.

 

OK, I will try this when I get home today. If that doesn't work, I'll try David7.3's technique. Right now, when I open the bleeder (to gravity bleed it, as some of the searches I saw said to), nothing comes out. Sounds reasonable that pushing the pedal while it's open will force some fluid down there.

 

After re-reading your post david7.3, I have a concentric slave, not an external slave. I assume that "clutch fork" is the fork an external slave pushes, correct?