Bleeding clutch line

I just replaced my clutch, flywheel and slave/throwout bearing. I have no clutch pedal whatsoever and I pumped the pedal about 25 times. The bleeder is seemingly impossible to get to. Anyone have any ideas on this? It would be greatly appreciated.

Literally sit there and pump it slowly, roughly 200-250 times and you'll have a clutch.. I promise.

Get hand vacuum pump and place it with a rubber or cork stopper in place of the cap on the brake reservoir.
Pump vacuum pump to 20" - 24"Hg and hold.
Pump brake pedal 10 times then rapidly release vacuum from reservoir.

Repeat 3 times.

If you didn't bench fill the slave with fluid before installing then its is completely full of air and is going to take some work to get it all out. The above methods work.

+1 on just keep pumping... It'll go eventually.

Yep. just have patience and pump, pump, pump !

I should have filled the slave cylinder before I put it in. Reading this now... Thanks guys! I will get on it after work.

Motive Power Bleeder. Worth the small cost.

So..... I blew off that little clip that holds the clutch to the transmission. Anyone have one of those? Or do ineed to see my local dealer?

Sh$t used magnets on the floor and cannot find that lil clip. Probably have to buy that whole assembly now. Love my stang!

I bought a new one recently, steve at tasca got the part for me. I got the plastic elbow and it comes with new clips.

When you install the throwout bearing you need to make sure it 'clicks' into the plastic elbow first ten install the clip or it will not seat right and the clip will fall off. I installed mine with the engine out so it wasn't as difficult for me but this can be a big pain in the ass if you are on your back on the floor or hovering over the engine compartment trying to do it.

thump_rrr said:

Get hand vacuum pump and place it with a rubber or cork stopper in place of the cap on the brake reservoir.
Pump vacuum pump to 20" - 24"Hg and hold.
Pump brake pedal 10 times then rapidly release vacuum from reservoir.

Repeat 3 times.

Click to expand...

This is what I did, I waited until it held at least 20" of pressure for 5 min, clutch felt great. I got a hand vacuum pump from oriellys auto $40 plus a rubber radiator cap for a couple bucks, drilled a hole in it and super glued the hose from the pump to the rubber stopper. Worked like a charm

That's a great idea. Thanks!

Search. There must be 20 write ups on this forum on this!


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I replaced mine recently too after dropping in a new motor and I had to pump it a couple of hundred times initially then about 50 more the next morning and then 25 times for the next day after that. Then it was fine.

When I did my motor swap with absolutely nothing in the slave cylinder/clutch line it took a good 200 or so pumps with the front of the car jacked up. Just replaced my clutch line and it only took about 30-40 pumps.

The other thing to take note of is that more vacuum is not better.
I have a few vacuum pumps which can pull down to 25 microns, virtually total vacuum.
I was pulling air in through the clutch pedal seal.

Just use a hand pump vacuum pump from your local auto zone. Cost about 35 bucks, end of story.


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