Can't bleed clutch slave cylinder

[blalor]

Morning, all. I'm prepping my 318is for a track day at Mont Tremblant next weekend. I bled the brakes with a DIY pressure bleeder and moved on to the clutch slave cylinder, just to be thorough. When I first put the bleeder on, the line from the brake fluid reservoir to the clutch master cylinder popped off and fluid squirted all over the engine bay. The hose was cracked at the end. (10psi is actually a fair bit of pressure!) When I went under the car and cracked the bleeder nipple on the clutch slave, I got no fluid. I removed the pressure bleeder and then removed the bleeder nipple on the slave and got no fluid. WTF?

I'm wondering if some meathead put the slave cylinder on upside down: the bleeder points down. Is that correct? It doesn't *look* correct, what with air wanting to rise, and all… Regardless of this, I should still be getting fluid out of the slave with the pressure bleeder. I also found that I could open the bleeder with my left hand while pressing down on the clutch pedal with my right, and still got no fluid. So, what's going on here? There must be fluid in the slave or the clutch wouldn't disengage. Is the slave clogged, somehow?

Thanks,
Brian

[IronmanE30]

Your clutch slave is in the correct position with the bleeder pointing down. With the bleeder removed take a small wire and clean out the bleeder hole. Sometime gunk gets built up at the bleeder that prohibits the fluid from flowing. If that does not work remove the line feeding the slave and see if you are getting fluid to the slave. I don't usually use a pressure bleeder on older master cylinders because if the rubber o-rings are weak on the bottom of the master cylinder reservoir they will start to leak.

Cheers,

Jim

[blalor]

Thanks, Jim. I appreciate you confirming the proper installation! :) Yeah, the pressure bleeder's a little bit of a roll of the dice. I probably should have skipped that on this car, but I didn't have any helpers around at the time. On the other hand, it pointed out the bad feed line to the clutch master cylinder, which could have fallen off at any moment, draining the reservoir! Given that the clutch does work fine as it is (I drove it this morning), I'm inclined to leave it alone until some time when I wouldn't be as screwed if it ended up immobile.

[IronmanE30]

Your welcome, I think that a new one is about $30 and yours may be ready to be replaced so it does not leave you stranded. Or it may last for years...

Cheers,

Jim

[blalor]

The slave is about $30 from RMEuropean.com, and the cheapest master is about $40. I may order those up, just to be safe!