My clutch fluid is real black and I my clutch stickes sometimes. Anyone know how to bleed it. Any help would be appriciated

 

There are a couple of ways of doing this, the easy good way, and the hard really proper way. The easy way, take a turkey baster and remove fluid from reservoir, take a clean, lint free cloth and clean out the crud, fill with dot4 (better than dot3 and compatible with the dot3 in there now. Drive and repeat as fluid gets dark again.

The proper way (as I can remember from Ranger, maybe he will come and put on the procedure in detail for you soon, but this should give you a basic idea)

Have one person in drivers seat to pump pedal
One person under car at bleed
One person filling reservoir as it gets low.
Pump clutch pedal several times and hold it to floor.
Person under car opens bleed (12mm?) Then closes bleed
Repeat until fluid comes out clear.

Again maybe Ranger will come on as he emailed me a more detailed procedure but I am not at home now and dont have access to it.

 

Bleeding the clutch requires access to the bleeder valve. Unfortunately getting at the bleeder valve requires removal of the exhaust (collector to the cat-back) and the central underpan with its many fasteners. The bleeder valve itself cannot be seen, only felt unless you use a mirror.

With all that said, I took mine to an all-Corvette shop where a knowledgeable tech bled the clutch in an hour. The charge was $117 including use of ATE Super Blue Racing fluid, which has much higher dry and wet boiling points than the DOT-3 fluid that is stock.

Suggest that if you're going to the trouble of bleeding it, upgrading the fluid is quite desirable. I'm convinced that many sticking slutch pedal problems are caused by "cooked" clutch fluid.

Ranger

 

Did you take it to Tony's corvettes?

 

Yes, Bluewasp, Tony's Corvette Shop did the bleed on my clutch.

My dealer declined to bleed the clutch under warranty because they said, "Clutch fluid never wears out." :rolleyes:

Ranger

 

Ranger, I had a sticking clutch problem at the track this weekend. Symptoms were: pedal not coming back, then finally coming back as the engine neared redline. The clutch was slipping a bit at the end of the day. When I opened the reservoir, the fluid level was very low (way down in there).

When I say "track" I mean roadcourse track, not the drag strip. Car has 12K miles.

Do you think my clutch fluid might be cooked, causing this? Thanks.

 

TTRotary,

The least intrusive thing you can do to potentially remedy clutch pedal ills is to bleed the clutch fluid and replace it with high temp fluid. If you have the ability to do it yourself, the cost is minimal. If you have to pay a shop, it's about an hour of labor.

That said, fluid should not be low (eg, below the shoulder in the reservoir) when was the last time it was checked? Any signs of fluid on your garage floor?

Is the fluid discolored and flecked with black oily goo around the sides of the reservoir?

Any M6/M12 Corvette that's seen a lot of high rpm shifts whether on the street, strip, or track is likely to develop clutch pedal sticking or sluggishness. My own belief is that many of these issues are related to the same sort of heat-induced progressive failure that impacts brake fluid.

The easy way to find out is to properly bleed the clutch fluid and see it the pedal returns to normal. If your pedal was acting up, clutch actuation is directly affected. So slippage symptoms can be caused by the fluid issue rather than a real issue with the clutch hardware itself.

There is a lot of bad info out there on clutches. Most dealers start changing out parts, often inducing new problems. My firm view is start out by bleeding the clutch and driving for a while to determine if the problem has been resolved.

Let us know.

Ranger


[Modified by Ranger, 7:16 PM 10/22/2001]

 

Hehe...:)

I'll be doing this this week when I do the TPIS install. gonna bleed via the valve. :) :crazy:

 

Ranger:
I'm going to swap my M/C & do the line mod shortly.
Since the M/C will be out of the car, think it'd be smart to just bench bleed the M/C and then just click it into the Slave Quick Disconnect?

Does a filled factory M/C being installed required bleeding? Think they come pre-bled and you just connect them? C5 Techs? Or is bleeding the Slave always required after a M/C install?

Or, FWIW, replacing the M/C line.. is it easier to replace the whole M/C or just the M/C line?

Thx All!

 

MelloYellow,

Can't answer your question. But I would suggest upgrading the fluid to high temp variety in any case. What likely to be in the new master cylinder is plain DOT-3.

Ranger

 

Agree. I've got some Valvoline SynPower Do3/4 sitting right next to the new M/C line. Will find out soon the easiest install path. Thx!