bleeding a clutch

[mymini]

I would be grateful for some advice on what I thoguht was going to be an easy sunday afternoon job!

I have a 1983 mini city. Yesterday i had trouble changing gear, then this morning the clutch pedal went spongy as soon as i undid the cap of the master cylinder reservoir. I bought a one man bleed kit from hlafords and followed the instructions - undo the master cylinder cap, fit the rubber tube onto the bleed nipple, slide over the plastic neck attached tot eh tube, ensure the other end of the tube is covered in clutch fluid in the plastic bottle, undo the bleed nipple half a turn, pump the clutch a few times, tighten the bleed nipple on the downward storke..all to no avail.
In fact pumping the clutch doesnt produce any flow of fluid from teh bleed nipple into the plastic pipe and bottle.

Any suggestions most welcome!

[Wicksy]

First question - can you see the slave cylinder moving when you pump the pedal with the bleed closedl? ( it's easy to see even without an assistant on a MINI as the cylinder is not under the car)
If yes then you have probably not "cracked" the bleed screw so open it some more.
The bad news is that even if you bleed the system successfully the problem will not be solved or the spongy condition will return as the clutch master seals are probably duff and need renewing - possibly the slave seal also.
The good news is that seal kits are cheap and available and the job is relatively easy as the components are so accessable.
A good tip for bleeding the clutch by the way is to fill the reservoir and fully depress the clutch pedal and lodge it open with a suitable piece of wood wedged against the parcel shelf or similar and then open the bleed screw with a tube attached into a jar. When it is air free close the bleed screw, remove the wood and top up the reservoir.
You can have a cup of tea while it is doing this, the flow on a Mini will be quite slow as it is almost level with the resi

[JPB]

Does this mini have a Verto clutch with the damper in the hydraulic line between master and slave cylinders? If so, then you'll have the devil's own job trying to bleed that without a bit of pressure from an Eezi-Bleed or similar to help you out. The damper restricts the flow of returning fluid in an effort to provide a less sudden engagement on Verto-equipped, transverse A series cars and it does a pretty good job of that, but it's a bugger to bleed.

However, as has already been said, there must be something wrong if you've had to bleed it other than following the replacement of a component of the clutch hydraulics, so find the leak before going any further then invest in an Eezi-Bleed.

[mymini]

Thanks to both of you for prompt replies; i can see the slave cylinder moving in and out when i depress the clutch - but no flow of fluid. There is a slight moveemnt down of the fluid in the reservoir when i pump the clutch - then the fluid goes up when the clutch is depressed..I have even tried unscrewing the bleed nipple out but there is no flow of fluid out

so maybe its a leak ansd its the seals that need replacing?

cheers

[Wicksy]

You must have a gunged up slave then - ruststy sludge has blocked up the bleed passage. I would get a new slave or a seal kit - the bore is probably rusted up pretty bad so a new slave is better - dirt cheap on the bay
The Master cylinder is likely to be in the same codition too so I would do both while you are at it

[mymini]

hi again

i have got the salve cylinder off my mini 1982 - it is the verto type according to the diagram in mini sport catalogue. However my old haynes manaul doesnt cover how i repair this type - i can depress the cylinder but not sure how to extract it to clean/renew..any ideas welcome

thanks

[mr rusty]

My experience of transverse A series hydraulic clutches is that they're all a pain to bleed, verto or not, and are a two person job, one doing a lot of pedal pumping while the other tops up and works the bleed screw.

The verto cylinder works the same as the non verto, all the verto weirdess is in the clutch itself, not the actuation method. You may have the verto damper JPB mentions above, although personally I've never actually seen one in the flesh. You'll know if you've got one because it'll be in the hydraulic line between master and slave. If you do have one then just bypass it to eliminate it, you don't need it and all the verto cars I've ever seen didn't have it anyway.

There's no circlip holding the guts in the cylinder so you should be able to either tap them out by banging the back of the slave or pull them out with thin pliers.

[Wicksy]

Or as I said - just buy a new one, they are pennies on e-bay and you won't have the hassle of trying to clean up coroded bores and then realising that it's a piece of junk anyway.

[mymini]

Thanks all for your advice. I have managed to replace the seals on the clutch slave cylinder and bled the system successfully! Hardest job was getting the rubber seal off then the new one on without tearing it etc.
this is a great site - now on to the job of sorting out why my exhaust is blowing at the manifold end!

cheers

[JPB]

Place a jack under the downpipe to support [the pipe's weight] when fitting the clamp. Exhaust problem sorted.