Clutch bleeding problems SOLVED

[dasmanschaft012]

I'm having major issues bleeding my clutch if anyone has any insight. I exploded a slave today inside the bellhousing, I think from too much pressure in my Motive pressure bleeder. Theres no leaks, im on my second slave cylinder. I have basically 0 pedal pressure except the last ~2inches of pedal travel, it gets stiff. 2 person bleeding makes it worse (no pedal pressure at all). Prressure bleeding with the Motive gets me that little bit of pressure. The system seems to bleed ok visually, but I'm never getting any pedal pressure. I haven't found any leaks with the Garagistic pedal set up.

e34 530i 5 speed trans
ttv flywheel
Southbend S52 stage 2 clutch
Willwood 3/4" master
e34 530i slave

This is the last thing preventing me from doing a test drive.

[Mykk540i/6]

This is how I had to bleed mine, with the pedal to the floor while doing this procedure. Then manually raising pedal by hand to draw fluid from reservoir before installing slave.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl5WQCgUjDc

[dasmanschaft012]

I did a half assed version of this today, ill try this way (probably with a clamp of some sort) tomorrow. I never had issues with the stock e30 clutch system, i always just opened the bleeder, got some fluid thru the system, then had someone pump and hold while i opened the bleeder.
For the most simple hydraulic system, I dont understand why im having such a hard time.

[flyboyx]

ok. so....the specs you have listed don't mean much to me. for example, i have no idea what a ttv flywheel is. also, the willwood specs don't mean anything to me either as there is no way i'm going to run that sort of system on my car.

there are a few caveats that i am aware of that may help you though.

there are two types of pressure plates. since you don't mention which you have, i am guessing perhaps you have the one with the small diaphragm hole. why are you using an s52 clutch disk and not one of the v8 versions?

the difference is that e34 v8 pressure plates have a much lager diaphragm hole than all the others. as a result, they require a special slave cylinder. its really important that you have the correct slave to match your pressure plate.

even though you didn't provide enough information to form a decent opinion, i am guessing this may be where you have gone wrong.

i really don't think its possible to blow up a clutch slave. maybe its possible that you exceed its travel limit and the seal came out of the barrel? this is another reason i think maybe you have the wrong slave/plate combo.

frank macaluso has a thread here where he was having a similar issue and this is what the problem turned out to be.

good luck. hope you get it figured out.

[Mykk540i/6]

The M60B30, 530i with the 5spd uses the smaller diameter throwout bearing & hole in the pressure plate. The 540i/6 with it's larger clutch diameter uses the bigger throwout & hole.

He should be okay there. Although I do agree "blow up" slave in the bellhousing does suggest extended slave travel.

The stock 530i clutch master is like .76" bore after converted from metric, his .75" aftermarket master won't make much of a difference to have an effect.

[Jean]

So, I am also using the same combination of parts and today I measured distance of my pedals from the floor/firewall to compare with OP.

The difference is about 2", which in my mind pretty significant. Basically if I understand it correctly, you end up with less travel but asking to move the same volume out of a pair of 5/8 brake masters and 3/4 clutch master. I've used a correct e34 530i slave, matching to the e34 trans and thats the slave TTV manufacture also recommended to use with their flywheel.

I am also thinking if the pedal difference is that much between my application vs OP, the masters could be holding air as they aren't in the fully extended / open position when the pedal is resting.

In my application, I have firm pedals and infact my clutch pedal doesn't need more than 1-1.5" inches of travel for a full clutch release.

[jpod999]

What was the measurement you mentioned Jean? I'm curious to compare mine now.

[dasmanschaft012]

My clutch works now! Def not a bleeding problem with the clutch, I pulled my pedal all the way apart, adjusted the clutch closer to what Jean's looked like and after a quick bleed the clutch will disengage now. Jean's pedal is about 6.5" from the firewall, mine was about 4.5". Jean followed the Tilton video on how to set the pedal up. it takes a good amount of effort to push the clutch all the way down, but the clutch disengages enough to shift about 2-3" off the firewall. i may need more master bleeding, or another round of pedal adjustment. Thanks for everyone's help.