How does one bleed a clutch?'88F150
 

I smell like brake fluid. I replaced the slave cylinder and am now regreting every moment. I can depress the clutch pedal and get partial pressure but the engine does not disengage from the pressure plate. Is it possible to put a pressure plate in backwards??

There is a bleed fitting (on the mazda) driver side 7/16th, if I remember, up on the bell of the tranny. Have another person work the pedal and you release the bleed screw. Just like doing breaks. The fluid will run low quick!!!!!! Make sure you check it often while bleeding.
Al

The manuals also tell you to this bleeding procedure at least 25 time, which I find ridiculously excessive. 10 should do the trick, more if you don't get the feel in the pedal. Mine doesn't start to engage until about 1/2 travel. No matter how many times I bled it after changing the slave cylinder. As far as putting the pressure plate in backwards, yes, look through the hole by your slave cylinder, check the finger position on the pressure plate, they should be bowing out toward the throw out bearing. If they are bowing in, like concave, then it's in backwards. Hope it isn't.

Sorry about the earlier post, I was thinking disc. No, you cannot put the pressure plate in backwards, it will bolt on only one way, as far as the disc, I don't think it matters other than the previous wear pattern.

I have found that the SIMPLEST and MOST EFFECTIVE way to bleed the clutch slave cylinder is to simply let it gravity bleed. Fill the clutch slave cylinder, leave the cap and rubber cup off or you will create a vacuum lock, open the slave cylinder bleeder screw and let the fluid run until no bubbles while maintaining fluid in the master cylinder, then tighten the bleeder screw. Top up the master cylinder to the proper level, replace the cap and rubber cup on the master cylinder and you're done. Do you have the 5 speed with the internal slave or the 4 speed with the external slave? Keep us posted.

I had a '65 that had this problem. What I did was a 2-man operation. I person gets under the truck and bleeds the air out as you already did. Then with a large pry bar, push the clutch open by prying against the clutch linkage. I used to push with my legs since they're stronger. When the person underneath pushes the cluch open, the 2nd person in the cab just pushes down on the clutch pedal. This always did it for me.

good luck!

I will try all of the above
 

Thanks so much for your help. I have not bleed out the air, yet. Atempts will be made today.

I agree with 88n94. Ford will also tell you this way and it is allot less work. Do this for a while to make sure. Then leave your cap off and tighten the bleeder. Get in and pump the clutch 50-100 times without the cap on. go slow as not to shoot it everywhere and it should be fine. If not it's prbably not air. On some trucks you can make adjustments but you have to be creative. It won't be factory. 1/16" can make allot of difference in between the slave and the fork. Your fork could be fatigued a little.

Add on: the spacer only works on external NOT INTERNAL.

I have an internal slave cylinder. I have raised the left side of my truck and tried every technique suggested. I believe there is no air in my system.

Symptoms: Engine starts fine in neutral. Clutch has lots of pressure, and moves the throw out bearing back and forth. Transmission goes in and out of all gears while the engine is off. However the trasmission will not go into gear while the engine is running. I have a five speed stick. Pressure on the stick will move the truck while the engine is on but not very fast or with any power, it is not in "gear".

What did I do wrong??

It defininetly sounds like you're not getting enough throw to disengage the input shaft. I have a stupid ? When you changed the slave cylinder did you reinstall the throw out bearing from the old slave cylinder or did the new one come with it. When you buy a new cylinder, the bearing is not usually sold with.

I was just checking some info on the disc. It is possible to install backwards. What this will cause, I'm not sure. The way to tell is on the spline hub of the disc, one side is flush and the other has a 1/2' raised portion. The flush side goes toward the flywheel. You might be able to see if you remove the inspection boot by the slave line and look inside through the pressure plate. While you're there make sure you have the throwout bearing and spring installed.

I spent a lot of time under my 85 and in it trying to get peddel. I replaced both slave and master. Got all the air out and still hads to push the peddel so far down that I broke the back of the seat out. Finialy took it out to an old ford man. 15 min. and $20 later I was running. He found that the bushing on the clutch peddel was worn thruogh. It's where the piston from the master cylinder hooks over the pin on the peddel. also by removing the cotter pin ,washer, and rod, the rod can be turned to increase peddel. Only one turn atv a time, assem. and test. turn again if needed.

My disc, I believe, is in correctly, I tried turning it around when I first put it in and the pressure plate would not go on, so I turned the disc around and everything lined up and the pressure plate was closer to the flywheel for attachment. I believe this part is on correctly. The throw out bearing and spring came with the new slave cylinder. They were a perfect match to the old one but the old throw out bearing was missing the contact metal cap that had apparently worn away at some point. I have also replaced the master cylinder. Could the hydraulic line leak/go bad???

Ok, let's try this, under the dash is you clutch linkage and a rod going into the clutch cylinder. Where this rod attaches to the clutch should be an arm with a nut on the end of the shaft. Remove the nut, slide the arm off and move the clutch pedal up to the bumper stop. Reinstall the arm and nut. What you are doing is reindex the pedal. If you want make a mark on the shaft to arm so you can go back to this position if you have any troubles.

Since I replaced the master cylinder, I cannot adjust the rod, as it is not adjustable. It is just a rod that is at the correct position, i.e. when it is disconnected from the pedal linkage, the hole in the rod lines up with the "nut" on the linkage. As far as the rod goes, the far end sets in a cupped portion of the master clyinder, with nothing really holding it there but the cupped portion. If I dissconnect the linkage the rod can fall out of the master cylinder if it weren't for the start switch getting in the way. So it is not adjustable. I wish to thank everyone who has tried to help. I have not given up hope.