Corvette Performance - Bleeding C5 Clutch

I just got done changing my whole clutch system. It has a lot of air in it, I have bled it for awhile and got the pedel to get a pretty good feel to it but there is still alot of air. It has enough air where I can't put the car in gear because the clutch isnt getting enough travel. I put the car back in the air and let it run in 1st gear and then went to 2nd and my clutch got mushy again and there was alot more air. I think there must be a huge air pocket in the system. I have been bleeding it with a hand pump style bleeder from a remote bleeder line. Im trying the old school way of pumping the pedal and holding it tomorrow. Are there any tricks to getting all the air out?

I did mine bone dry, driveline was out but slave cyl. and all lines connected where they should be (put slave bleeder at lowest point), ran a small hose from the bleeder into a bottle of fluid, used a shop vac and electrical tape to seal vac hose on the top of the fluid reservoir, turned vac on and opened bleeder, watched till the level got allmost full, didnt take long at all, tighten up the bleeder THEN turn off vac... disconnected the slave, bolted to torq tube, installed everything, pluged slave back in, everything works great (btw, McLeod twin disc, w/ Mcleod master cyl., and z06 slave)

:bang: I should have bled it while I had everything out. I didn't think about it since I installed the remote bleeder.

The best solution to getting all the air out is repetition, repetition, repetition....

You don't pump it and hold it down. That won't remove air.

Two man job.

Crack bleeder, push pedal to floor and hold it. Close bleeder to prevent air from being sucked in.

Repeat this 4 times or so, or until the air is out. You may have to pump the pedal or pull it off the floor to get the pedal back, but this way will remove air.

A good solution for the future is to add the extension for the clutch when changing it out so that you can bleed it from the top anytime that you want.

A good solution for the future is to add the extension for the clutch when changing it out so that you can bleed it from the top anytime that you want.

I have that already.


Well its more than a air problem, taking the clutch back out of the car to whats wrong.

That sucks. Did you ever try adjusting the rod out on clutch pedal ?

That sucks. Did you ever try adjusting the rod out on clutch pedal ?

Yep, tried both ways. I even moved it all the way out and all the way in. Tearing it down on Thursday.

Took the car back apart again and found out its somthing to do with the hydraulics. The clutch is only getting about half the travel it should. I already have a shim installed per RAM. Im taking out all the hydraulics tomorrow and going to bench check everything to see if I can find out which part is bad, since everything is brand new.

are you using an aftermarket master cyl?

are you using an aftermarket master cyl?

Yes, RAM everything including ram adjustable master and a stock slave. I treid everything before taking the tranny and rear back out. I adjusted the master all the way both directions just to see with no luck. The worst part is the only thing wrong with my car was the slave clinder was bad but since I knew the clucth was going to hold up anyway I changed everything. So I went from a bad slave to all new parts that dont work, lol.

outch... did you buy the slave new?, other than a defective or misinstalled part I could only think one of your connection points may have a leak, were you loosing fluid at all?... maybe when you get everything on the bench and bled, put the slave in a vice w/the spring and some pressure on the spring, push in the master to see if the slave is working, dont go too far though, I'm not sure if the slave can pop out if there's not enough pressure against it...

Everything is brand new. I taking this piece os shit remote bleed line off while I have it apart. There are no leaks and the clucth has not lost any fluid or pedal pressure in a week. I just had my interior out when I finished the clutch up so I didnt get a chance to try to drive it till the other day.

Took the bleed line off and got double the movement in the slave now but the clutch still doesnt work!

holy crap, so thats 2 times you had to remove the entire driveline for no reason...?..
maybe try putting the stock master in to see if you get pedal, the ram part could be bad... only other thing that would cause this is a pressure plate that was made or installed incorrectly, wich would make the engage height alot lower and the slave cant push that far.... hard to diagnose over the internet though...

Yep twp times......Im really fast at it now. I just mailed the clutch assy back to ram and will no something in a day or two. Im also putting another new slave in. Im giving this ram stuff one more chance before I put my stock clutch back in.

just do what you should have done from the beginning....... McLeod!

bringing this back from the dead...

how did the OP wind up fixing the problem? was it hydraulic or the clutch?

It was a bad clutch from ram. Put a new one in and it worked fine.

just do what you should have done from the beginning....... McLeod!



or a textralia

Cool, glad you got it worked out. I was having a simular problem with my McLeod twin disk clutch. I don't think anything is wrong with the clutch assembly but I sent it back for inspection just in case.

While I'm in there I plan on replacing the MC and SC too.