So today I got my new clutch and slave cylender in my 96 F-150 I-6 4x4. Got it all put together and went to bleed the clutch.... at first I had half pedal enough to start it but not put it in gear. Could not get full pedal no mater what I did. A guide book with the cluch said these trucks are bad about locking air in the cylenders so it said to remove the master from the firewall and hold the resevior end higher and that would get the air out. Did this and shortly thereafter it got worse, now I have nothing! I push the clutch and it sucks itself right down to the floor and you have to pull it back. I am out of brake fluid for the night so the resevior is full and the bleeder valve is cracked. What should I do? Plese give me some input so I can get this thing on the road!

 

After you remove the clutch master cylinder cover you need to remove the black rubber diaphragm before you add any brake fluid. You do not have to remove the clutch master cylinder from the firewall.

The clutch slave can be bleed by gravity just by opening the bleeder valve. You can bleed it also by pumping the pedal a dozen times then cracking the bleeder valve open. Close it and pump the clutch pedal a dozen times again. Eventually you will see a stream of brake fluid coming out of the bleeder valve with no air. Just make sure you keep the clutch master cylinder filled and keep the brake fluid from getting on any painted surface because it will damage the paint.

 

I know to remove the rubber diaphram and was just following the instrcutions that came with the clutch for a no relase scenario as far as removing the master. I toped off the resevior and left the bleeder open to let it set overnight that way, I will check it later and make sure it wont run empty. When I get more brake fluid I will try pumping it a few times before opening the bleeder. I seemed to have full streams of fluid with no air on a few occasions but thats when I still had half pedal.

 

Try opening the bleeder with the pedal up, push the pedal to the floor, close the bleeder, then pull the pedal back up. Do this a couple of times, then try pressure bleeding where you pump up the pedal, hold it on the floor, open and close the bleeder, then pull the pedal up and repeat. A friend of mine had a heck of a time bleeding the clutch in his ranger, and this was how he finally got it to work. The master cylinder never ran dry while you had everything apart, did it?

 

no it didnt run dry while changing the clutch but it ran dry now from leaving the bleeder cracked overnight, checked once and was fine then couple hours later it was empty. Can't be any worse off than I was I supose. Start from square one and do it all over. Hopefully I can get on of your tricks to work. I found a write up on how to do it the ""right"" way but what a pain in the neck it sounds like http://www.clutchwizard.com/fordtruck.htm I dont see the need for all that but if all else fails....

 

i have replaced the cylinder more than once, when i bleed it i let the gravity do the work first just by cracking it, then pump and bleed. if that dont work get enough clutch to drive to a shop that presure bleeds, doing this it has to be started in gear

 

Good advice, that's how I did mine. It helps to train the wife on the pedal side of the process; really speeds up the job. I didn't find bleeding the clutch to be all that difficult, I think the issue most people run into is getting it to pump fluid in the first place. Suppose that is where the initial gravity bleed would help out.

 

Think using a vacuum pump will work? One way to find out I suppose. Can't get any worse

 

I'm a little confused. I was underneath he truck looking for a bleeder valve and apparently mine would be internal to the bell housing. Is there a way to get to the slave cylinder to bleed it without removing the transmission?

I managed to have a little success with opening the cap to the master cylinder and pumping the pedal a bit and some air came out. To my amusement whoever had the truck before me tried to fill the master cylinder with the rubber nipple still in place.

 

Have you tried bench bleeding the master cylinder first? This gets most (and possibly all) of the air out of the master cyl. itself, so you're not having to pump all that out through the bleeder.

Then, perhaps, a "trick":

I was able to bench bleed my master cylinder, and pre-fill the line with an eyedropper, prior to connecting it to the end of the new (already bench-bled) master cylinder, so that I didn't need to bleed the slave cylinder at all--and my pedal feel/height actually improved!

Since you've had air in it already, even filling the line up with an eyedropper won't prevent having to bleed it, but bench bleeding may solve your problem.

I'm friends with a Ford tech and he always uses a power bleeder. He says it's much faster, but that you don't have to have one to get it to bleed right--it just takes longer to bleed manually, obviously.

Good luck!

Big Six

 

IMPORTANT!!!! I noticed that no one mentioned jacking the front end of the truck up during bleeding! Jack it up and put some ramps under it for safety. The clutch master cylinder need to be tilted up at an angle for bleeding!

 

Mine was up on ramps, so I could get under it, periodically, to see what the slave cylinder was doing, as I wasn't sure the problem was NOT the slave, until replacing the master cylinder actually worked. So I guess I got lucky, in more ways than one.

 

If the master cyl. ran out of fluid this is what I did. fill master cyl half full, have someone put light touches on the brake petal and you watch the the master cyl. As someone keeps pushing the petal very lightly you will see small air bubbles appear. keep doing that until you see no more bubbles. Sometimes takes 1/2 hr. After no more bubbles go to the slave cyl and open bleed screw (allen head) on top of cyl at back by inlet tubing. Have person push brake easy and watch for air at slave cyl. Hold brake petal down screw in bleeder screw, let brake petal up and repeat until all is is gone. Meanwhile watching master cyl between times so that it doesn't run low. Good luck. It will work if you take your time.

 

I believed you has to bleed the unit complete with the hose put the master on base at list 45 degrees up rod pointing down fill the reservoir and let the hose hang free and open the check valve with something screwdriver or something and make sure that its under fluid so; you are going to push on the rod of the master look at the hose check valve looking for air once it clear close the valve and now make sure the reservoir its full push the rod the master should fee hard ,now lookout the reservoir for bulbs do that couple times you will have a hard pedal with a16of inch play no more than that'd you are done put it back ones you connect the hose to the slave cylinder and make sure is lock fill the top again open the bleeder and do 3 times gravity bleed 3 reservoirs and it should be ok.good luck

 

I'm sorry to say this, but without punctuation, your post is almost unreadable. Then, when you swap "words" like "bulbs" for bubbles, well, it really is pretty much unreadable. I'm not picking on you; rather, I'm trying to raise your awareness, as I know you're just trying to help. So let me try to help you: please have someone well-versed in English edit your post, on a printed copy, so you can see how it should have been written, if it were to provide the help I'm sure you intended it to provide. Good luck.