O.K. I don't have a mity vac so I'm doing this old school style.
The haynes manual says you bleed the clutch with a peice of tubing hooked to the bleed valve. How is this possible if you bleed air from the same place. Does this thing suck fluid and blow air from the same place. Anybody ever done this??

 

Save yourself a ton of grief and read my post about the pressure bleeder and review the posts about making a mods to the bleeder screw and in the body of the car near the gas peddle so you can get access to it easily.

Old school - three guys - one to keep the small resevior full, another to pump the clutch and another to open/close the beeder on each pump. Not fun.

cmac

 

Here is what I did for my last clutch job. I took a shallow socket dont reacall size and a old box wrench and welded the box end on top of the socket. Now had enough room to slip the socket wrench over the bleeder and open and close with easy. While the second person ran the pedal. Just let the fluid squirt out through the top of the socket. made a little bit of a mess, But cleaned it up very easy with a squirt bottle and some rubbing alcohol. Also let some run down the inside of the bellhousing and out the bottom. (drilled a small .040 hole in the bottom) Let it dry and good to go.

I was not to keen on drilling a hole in my floor board.

 

I thought I was the only one with that tool. I used a socket, a short screwdriver handle, and MIG welded them together. I use the Phoenix injector to reverse inject from the slave cylinder bleeder. It forces the air up like it wants to go. You can do it in half an hour. You should take the bolts out the the master and let it sit on the frame still connected to the slave. This lets air trapped in the top escape up to the resevoir. Although some people are successful with the old pump method it simply doesn't always work on this hydraulic system. The phoenix injector is about $100.00. Well worth it if you wasted hours like I did before I got it.

 

What's the bleeder screw mod? I've never heard of it? I thought abouty the mity vac, but I was wondering if I sucked air out from the top with the mity vac, how would you replace the trapped air with fluid since you have to open the bleeder screw to move the fluid through the system?

 

The bleeder mod; remove and tap the current bleeder then locktite or braze a regular bleed screw from a brake caliper into it. It allows you to put the plastic hose on or attach one of the might vac fittings. Also extends it past the housing so you can get a wrench on it. You also have to put ample Teflon tape onto the screw before reinstalling it. That prevents the air from running past the threads. Your right, using the suction from the top method could get some air in if you don't first flood the bleed screw and plastic line by pumping the clutch. Suction from the bleed screw would seem more prudent.

If you do this mod though, I don't think your going to get any sockets or tools as described above in between it and the body and I'm not sure but I don't think you can get the bleed screw out with out dropping the tranny or drilling the hole in the car body. I did mine when I had the slave out.

I've tried all the methods, manual pump the clutch, vacuum from reservoir and vacuum from the bleed screw. The vacuum method was messy and I ended up letting the reservoir run dry and getting air into my master. The pump method is a pain and takes two helpers or one moving between pumping and filling the reservoir but then one pump to many and you run the reservoir dry.

One of the reasons I like the pressure bleeder - you push the fluid and any traped air right through the system rather then sucking it in through the bleeder or running the reservoir dry and getting some air intake. Once you've got air trapped in the master, then you need to elevate the business end (on the car or on the bench) as explained above so you can push it through. Believe me, it’s no fun getting the master out and back in. I still have fresh cuts on my knuckles to prove it.

In my opinion, the tool build as described above + the pressure bleeder would be the easiest method and no mods; no tearing the interior apart to drill a hole in your car, no risking spillage of break fluid in the car, little risk of getting air into the system. A little mess on the discharge of fluid from the bleeder but as mentioned, that's not a big deal to clean up.

I've found that the bleeder starts leaking as soon as you open it so I don't think simply opening it will immediately allow air in. That said, I still like it to have the fluid under pressure when I close it - just to be sure.

BTW, I saw the pressure bleeder somewhere else on the net, it wasn't my idea. I just changed it a bit by adding the pointed mighty vac nipple. I wish I would have found the tool build describe in above posts and the pressure bleeder before I ripped apart my interior, made the hole in my car and spilled brake fluid everywhere trying the mighty vac method.

cmac

 

Interesting, the pressure bleeder I built could be used to reverse inject too. $15 bucks. How do you keep the fuild from overflowing the resevior? I assume remove it from the mount and put it over a container. Or do you have a better method?

 

I started with a helper, my wife, using a bulb to suck it out and keep it below the top. I then used my custom system to automatically remove the fluid. It is what I usually bleed brakes with. It is a venturi vacume, $30.00, using air from my compressor for the power, connected to a mayonaise jar lid, with a tube coming out of the bottom of the jar for the bleeder connection. This bleeder hose was stuck in the resevoir with the vacume on for constant suction on the excess fluid. You just top it off at the end. Obviously a helper with a bulb is the easiest if you dont have a constant vacume bleeder. It is much easier and more effective than a two man pump and release method. You will need to remove the fluid but the injection is slow. I use short rapid bursts of 5ml on the Reverse Injection Tool. This loosens trapped air more effectively by breaking the surface tension of the air.