Well, the slave cylinder decided that it no longer wants to be my friend and has asked to come out. So, after the turkey has properly digested, I will be exchanging the old with a new slave cylinder.

Question: Do I need to bleed the new slave, or is it already pre-bled from the factory? What about when I reconnect the hose? Any bleeding involved (besides my knuckles and arms)?

Also, from looking at the pictures on installuniversity.com, it appears that I don't need to fully remove the transmission; only move it back about 3-4 inches. Is that correct?

Anything else I should be worried about? Is it wise to fully remove the console and shifter first, or can you unbolt the shifter directly from underneath?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks - and Happy Thanksgiving!!

brian
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1. The new slave will need to be bled after install. Make sure to keep your clutch fluid resevoir full when bleeding. You do not want to suck air into the lines!!!!! Do yourself a favor and drill a 1" hole into your trans tunnel for bleeding the clutch. You do not understand how easy it makes bleeding.

2. The trans does not need to be fully removed from the car. It needs to be pulled back far enough to where the splines are out from the clutch and the old slave can be slid off after removing the two 10mm bolts. Depending on your car you may or may not have enough rearward room to move the tranny so the old slave can be slid off and new one slid on. I removed my T56 with my exhaust still in place and there was no way to get the old slave off with the tranny still in place.

3. Your shifter is held on via 4 bolts can remember size to the top of the tranny. These must be removed from the top of the car. Not able to underneath. Some don't like to remove the while console but I usually do as it gives more working room.

Good luck with the install and feel free to ask me any ? as I just rebuilt my tranny and all of this is fresh in my head!

 

Thank you very much! I just got back from buying a quality floor jack and I'm off to do it.

Brian

 

You can bleed it with a mitivac without drilling the hole if you are replacing the slave. Before you slide the new slave on the input shaft hook the master hose to the new slave. While it is hanging there you can crack the bleeder open and slide mity vac hose with the long pointed plastic fitting into the bleeder. Put the other end of the hose into a bottle of brake fluid.

Now from the top of the car with your mityvac put the hose into the master resevoir down into the small hole at the bottom Use the short pointed fitting on this end of the hose. Pump your mitivac up to about 25 inches of vacumm. Have a friend under the car to close the bleeder once it sucks up enough fluid that you are no longer seeing large amounts of air coming up throught the tube at the top. Once the bleeder is closed leave vacumm on till you see no more bubbles.

As was stated before make sure there is some fluid in the resevoir so when you release the vacumm it will not suck air down into the hydraulics.

Pump the pedal a few times and put some more suction through the hydraukics from the top with the bleeder closed and see if you can still pull some bubbles out.

Repeat this again in a fewdays and you will probably get some more out of it.

Bard

 

You're gonna need to back it out a lot more than 3-4 inches. It circles the input shaft; prepare to get it out of there 7-8 at least.

I would connect the line last, then bleed it a little bit, then bleed it using the jmd method for bleeding and you'll be air-free.

 

I installed a ram stage 4 and new slave from GM last weekend.I plugged in the line when done,pumped the pedal a few times and had perfect pedal and dissengament.

 

Thanks to everybody that responded. I got the transmission out last night. JMB - you're right - it needed to go back further and there was no more room. Thing that sucked was the transmission fluid started leaking out as i lowered the rear part of the tranny, since the front was still caught-up on the pressure plate. Fun to clean-up transmission fluid!

I have some more questions: I don't know what a mitivac is. Can the bleed be doen without? Also, when bleeding won't brake fluid leak into the bellhousing and perhaps ruin the clutch?

Lastly, how the hell does the hose disconnect from the slave? I've pushed down as far as I can on the white plastic ring and it still doesn't disconnect. Any thoughts? Perhaps just buy a new hose? Easier to then do the drill mod. Any body know the part number?


Thanks again!!

Brian

 

That hose can be a pain. Pust the plastic in allthe way in all the way around. You may need to push in on the hose at the same time. Then it should release.

Goto Autozone they have the Mitivac there. They cost about 25 to 30 dollars and make life alot easier. It is a manual Vacum pump for bleeding brake systems.

Brad

 

Screw the mityvac. Just do it the old fashioned way with two of your friends. One pumps the pedal, one opens the bleeder valve, and another watched the fluid in the resevour. It doesn't take long at all and is cheaper than buying a Mityvac.

 

The white plastic ring is actually split - turn it so you can see the split to ensure that both sides of it are pressed in and make sure you are pulling the fitting straight out. Any side movement binds it. I use the wrench for my die grinder to push the plastic ring in - fits perfectly so I can get both sides at the same time. Good luck on a new hose. You can get one from GM but only with a new master. I couldn't find one anywhere so I had the line replaced by a local shop. It had rubbed through on the car body. I use the vacume method to bleed and the bleed and hose drill mods as described in other posts. The drill mod on the tranny cowling saved a ton of frustration. I also saw a post on another site about making a pressure bleeder from a plastic plant sprayer. I plan to build one as that's my preferred method of bleeding auto hydraulics. Note that you have to open the bleeder to get the hydraulic line plugged back in all the way too - seems obvious now but I thought I'd save you the bad experiance I had - hydraulic fluid everywhere when it blew out under pressure.

 

Thats a good idea! I will use that next time. Sounds alot better than my two flathead screwdriver method lol.


I have never had this problem. I have never opened the bleeder To install the hose either.

Brad

 

Thanks all - I'm off to work on it again!! I should be able to fit under the car now that the turkey has digested!!!

 

Well, i got it done last Friday. The car shifts much better. It doesn't grind into 2nd and 3rd and the feel of the clutch is much better. I will need to get a new clutch soon, as there is some rattling coming from the clutch as the pedal is pushed in. It was there before i changed the slave, so I know it has to be the clutch. The old slave has a piece of metal sheared off the end just laying there. I'm thinking that some might have moved to the clutch disc or pressure plate.

Anyway, at least I know how to remove everything and it won't be so difficult next time. Even the bleeding of the slave was easy!

Thanks to all!!

 

So how did you end up bleeding the slave? Did you buy the mitivac? Or did you do it the old fashioned way? Did you bleed it with the slave installed? I have to do this soon with a new GM slave.