Bleeding clutch lines.

[Dread53]

For what it's worth, I just put in a new one. I let it bleed through while the engine was still out (with a self bleeder kit) and it still had air once the engine was in. I tried pumping slowly for a long time, then opened the bleeder with the pedal pumped up, all to no avail. I got kind of frustrated and then pumped the pedal rapidly to try to build pressure to bleed, and it pumped up just fine. I then pumped it up again and opened the bleeder with pressure on it. I haven't driven the car yet but the pedal feels fine.

 

[one eyed willy]

i had to pump very fast, about 10-15 pumps.....for about 10 times each time i got in the car after the new tranny.days and days apart.

 

[1FastS197]

putting in a spec 3+ and spec flywheel this weekend... does the slave have a bleeder on it? do you assemble the clutch and then bleed it without the transmission in?

 

[RRRoamer]

1) Only '05s had a bleeder. Ford dropped it after the first year.

2) Put everything together and bleed the system. It doesn't take too long and isn't too hard to do.

 

[1FastS197]

1) Only '05s had a bleeder. Ford dropped it after the first year.

2) Put everything together and bleed the system. It doesn't take too long and isn't too hard to do.

awesome! my car is an 05!

when you say put everything together you mean put the trans and all in right? where is the bleeder? anyone got a pic? i'm borrowing a lift so it would be good to know what i gotta do before getting on the lift...

 

[RRRoamer]

I don't have any pics. But yes, I meant put the car back together with everything in place.

I did the clutch on my '05 a few months ago. The bleeder is on the little "block" where the clutch line connects at the transmission bell housing. When I bled mine, I didn't touch this fitting at all. The only thing I did was fully flush and bleed the brake system first (to get fresh fluid in place in the master cylinder and all the brake lines) and then I pumped the brake pedal slowly for about 5 minutes.

When I started, the pedal when straight to the floor with no real resistance. But, after a minute or so, it started to get a bit of resistance towards the bottom of the travel. This built up as I slowly pumped the pedal until it had ALMOST normal resistance all the way to the top. After 5 minutes, the car was drivable, but the pedal was not 100% normal. However, the next day when I took the car out, the pedal was exactly like it was when I first bought the car.

So, the reason the factory removed the bleeder nipple is it really isn't needed and it probably has lead to some other problems (like leaks) instead, so it was better to remove it and call it done.

 

[rocky61201]

Kinda off topic because the shop is going to have to bleed mine tomorrow. My slave slowly went bad and then finally popped right before i was going to order a new one and do the labor myself.

Mine started with a squeal on first startup when it was cold and the squeal would go away when warmed up. Thought this was the separator plate between the trans/block issue that I read about on this board but I was probably wrong!

Eventually progressed to a constant squeal that would stop when pressing the clutch pedal in a little bit (1/2 inch travel) to load up the slave. Once that constant squeal happened, about 2 days later the slave popped and left me stranded and had to be towed to a shop. I'm thinking the constant heat produced by the squeal (metal on metal contact) caused the seals to blow.

Moral of the story is, once it starts squealing, replace ASAP before you need a tow too. PS - 06 model with 43k miles.