I hate my clutch

[Morgen01]

Please forgive the long read but I am very stumped and need some guidance.

Ok so to preface this I recently started having issues on Hills and my clutch started to give me the impression it was worn and in need of replacement. So I had confirmed with a friend who works in a shop and he agreed that the way it felt seemed like a clutch about to go out. So I went and grabbed a new clutch kit, Rms, and slave cylinder. Once I got the clutch assembly off and examined the condition of the clutch it looked to me like the friction material was all still in good shape.
After replacing all and getting the truck back together I went to attempt to bleed the clutch but I had no luck.
I did follow the link we have for bleeding the clutch and at step 5 no fluid comes out of the bleeder valve.
(http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/bleedclutch.htm)
I am now thinking my original issue was an air build up in my clutch system. Any ideas on what to troubleshoot next would be great.
Thanks for any help. Morgen

 

[Morgen01]

Oh and this thread is in the wrong area probably so mods feel free to move it.

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[Morgen01]

I can almost 100% confirm it was air.

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[Morgen01]

So do I need to bench bleed the system or can it be done without removing the MS?

 

[pjtoledo]

when I did my 05 I had to remove the master cylinder and invert it. the fluid goes out the bottom, no way to evacuate the air trapped at the top.

 

[Morgen01]

Thanks
For confirmation

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[scotts90ranger]

something to try before going through the work of removing the master cylinder is to push the pedal to the floor and slip your foot off (either in neutral or engine not running) a handful of times. I've successfully used this method a handful of times when I had some clutch issues...

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Another way I've tried but cannot confirm works [because there was a different problem], disconnect the rod from the foot lever and carefully pull the rod back at a slight angle until the boot just comes out. Any air trapped should be released and you can push the rod and boot back in. I cannot confirm that this removes all air as my problem was one of the master cylinder bolt ears was broken allowing movement.

 

[oddball101]

After having clutch issues of my own after a tranny swap, I have become quite adept at bleeding the clutch master without removing the entire system from the vehicle. What I did was disconnect the pedal from the push rod and then twist and back out the master from the firewall. From there, you just get under the truck with your trusty 8mil wrench for the bleed, but with your other hand, reach up and grab the master, point the rod toward yourself, rest it on the frame rail, give it a couple squeezes against the frame rail compressing it towards yourself, and on the last pump, keep it compressed and twist the 8mil wrench to let it bleed. As soon as the pressure stops motion on the slave, close the bleed screw and repeat until you see no more air bubbles.

This will evacuate all the air inside the master through the slave and the reservoir, and all you have to do is rotate it back up into position through the firewall, use vice grips to rotate it up through the square hole, and clip the push rod back to the pedal.

I used a 1/4 inch piece of clear hose from the plumbing section at Lowe's and just routed it from the bleed screw to flow up to and back in the reservoir. Only do this if you know your system is clean.

Anyway, it saves a mess and is easy to watch making it a one man job.

 

[4x4junkie]

something to try before going through the work of removing the master cylinder is to push the pedal to the floor and slip your foot off (either in neutral or engine not running) a handful of times. I've successfully used this method a handful of times when I had some clutch issues...

I've used a similar method,
I crack the bleeder valve open very slightly, and then just hammer the pedal to the floor about 6-8 times in extremely rapid succession, then close the bleeder and check the reservoir afterward. Repeat a 2nd or 3rd time and pressure starts to build up until the clutch becomes operable. Any last little bit of air that may be left in there seems to self-bleed on it's own after a few dozen miles.