[Carlson]

Hey guys! I had been replacing brake fluid in my bike yesterday, and since already had mityvac out decided to bleed the clutch line in my ST. Expected it to be a quick job, but it turned in quite an adventure. first of all - the bleeder valve is terrible. Never experienced one that had to be opened few turns before it fluid starts to come out, and even after that it was going painfully slow. Is that due to the flow restrictor?.. Anyway, after I've finally finished the job (or at least thought I finished it) and went to check the clutch pedal it went down into the floor and stayed there! At no time during bleeding I let the fluid go much below the "max" mark in the reservoir, but apparently that was too low for the damn clutch line pickup. I had to start over and that time I kept reservoir full to the brim. That helped and I got my clutch back. So, based on my experience I got a few questions...
- How high in the reservoir is the pickup for clutch line?
- If I managed to suck in bunch of air by keeping the fluid level around MAX mark, wouldn't that mean that it's quite possible to get air in the line just by normal clutch operation, especially if driving aggressively with fluid sloshing around in the reservoir? Wouldn't it be safer to keep it filled above MAX mark?
- If you bled your clutch before, have you experienced same slow release from the bleeder valve and had to open it ~2 turns?

 

[Duece McCracken]

Hey guys! I had been replacing brake fluid in my bike yesterday, and since already had mityvac out decided to bleed the clutch line in my ST. Expected it to be a quick job, but it turned in quite an adventure. first of all - the bleeder valve is terrible. Never experienced one that had to be opened few turns before it fluid starts to come out, and even after that it was going painfully slow. Is that due to the flow restrictor?.. Anyway, after I've finally finished the job (or at least thought I finished it) and went to check the clutch pedal it went down into the floor and stayed there! At no time during bleeding I let the fluid go much below the "max" mark in the reservoir, but apparently that was too low for the damn clutch line pickup. I had to start over and that time I kept reservoir full to the brim. That helped and I got my clutch back. So, based on my experience I got a few questions...
- How high in the reservoir is the pickup for clutch line?
- If I managed to suck in bunch of air by keeping the fluid level around MAX mark, wouldn't that mean that it's quite possible to get air in the line just by normal clutch operation, especially if driving aggressively with fluid sloshing around in the reservoir? Wouldn't it be safer to keep it filled above MAX mark?
- If you bled your clutch before, have you experienced same slow release from the bleeder valve and had to open it ~2 turns?

I've bled the clutch line a few different times already, and never had any issues at all. In fact It was quite simple to do, but only due to the fact that I use a check valved bleeder bottle. A true one man manual bleeding procedure.

IIRC it took a few turns, and was a bit slow, but once opened up it flowed fine. Just pump pump pump, done.

 

[Carlson]

I've bled the clutch line a few different times already, and never had any issues at all. In fact It was quite simple to do, but only due to the fact that I use a check valved bleeder bottle. A true one man manual bleeding procedure.

IIRC it took a few turns, and was a bit slow, but once opened up it flowed fine. Just pump pump pump, done.

With mityvac it's also a one man job - it's pulling the fluid from bleed valve using vacuum.

 

[Duece McCracken]

With mityvac it's also a one man job - it's pulling the fluid from bleed valve using vacuum.

I'm just saying I pushed the fluid through via clutch pedal actuating the master cylinder. I've used vacuum systems, but I really like the set-up i currently use.

https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/productdetails.asp?RecID=10387

Todd at TCE suggested it, and its quite fantastic. Shipping is murder though.

Seems like you sucked too hard, lol.