On my dad's 86' Silverado we have a slave cylinder that went bad (We're speculating, since the bar it moves is only moving less then 1", and it doesnt start moving until halfway through the clutch pedal movment, and wont go into gear becuase it feels like we're not depressing the clutch fully.
Anyways we got a new one, and we're about to install it, but how do you bleed it?
I heard something about using a vacuum bleeder, but i dont have one, so is this nesccesary or can we just do like we would a brake bleed? (depress clutch, bleed, tighten, let go of clutch).
thanks!

You can bleed it just like you would a brake system as you described. Normally I have success with opening the bleeder on the slave cylinder and letting it gravity bleed by itself untill only fluid is running out. Then just top off the fluid and you should be OK.

Cool, only problem is that the screw is pointing up, but we might be able to flip it. we'll see.
thanks!

You really need to get one of those hand pump vacs like they sell at Pep Boys to pull the fluid and air up out of it. Make sure the master is full as you pull the air/fluid out or you'll end up with more air in the line.

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Jeff H - 93 Indy 500 Pace Car driven daily, Hugger Orange 69 Z28, original factory JL8 brakes, cross-ram & GM fiberglass hood, TI setup, heater and radio delete, being restored

Jeff, we found that out today unfortunately, we couldnt get that sucker bled for anything, so tomorrow we'll pick up a vacuum bleeder.

Thats strange I've put on no telling how many slave cylinders and never had to use a vacuum pump before. Regardless if the bleeder is pointing up (it has to be in order to get all the air out of it) the master cylinder is way higher than the slave and the fluid should bleed out by leaving off the cap on the master and cracking open the bleeder and letting it drip for a little bit. There are some cases in which the gravity trick doesn't work but if you got a helper just bleed it like you would brakes with one pumping and the other opening and closing the bleeder. The vac pump is ok for a one man show but I was under the impression that you had someone helping you also. If you don't want to spend the money on a pump, take a plastic 20oz soda bottle, fill it about 1/4 full of brake fluid, put a piece of vacuum hose down in the fluid and the other end on the loosened bleeder screw. Pump the clutch pedal a few times and check the master fluid level as to not run it dry. Do that a few times and it should get the air out.

CNC, it's been my experience that on many late models you'll need to replace the master/slave/line assembly. They come already bled.

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Don~ ZZ430DropTop (http://hometown.aol.com/zz430droptop67rs)
~~~~and~~~~
70 RS/Z28 (http://hometown.aol.com/performancespecs)
67 RS/SS Convertible, 70 RS/Z28

We got the slave alone though, and it did not come with anything else. It's not really a "late" model its an 86', which is pretty close to the beginning of hydrualic clutches.
I'll try the tip about using a coke bottle and fluid, that seems like it would work. Similar to bench bleeding it sounds like.

[This message has been edited by CamaroNOTcamero (edited 07-12-2002).]

I misread the year... http://www.camaros.net/forum/rolleyes.gif

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Don~ ZZ430DropTop (http://hometown.aol.com/zz430droptop67rs)
~~~~and~~~~
70 RS/Z28 (http://hometown.aol.com/performancespecs)
67 RS/SS Convertible, 70 RS/Z28

No harm done http://www.camaros.net/forum/biggrin.gif

BIG thanks guys! We got it to bleed today. i let gravity work on it for a little while while i took a home depot trip to pick up some clear plastic tubing. I ran the tubing to a cup of brake fulid then we started pumping the clutch and that started working. but what really worked the best was pulling the slave back out (With everything still attached) and uncapping the resevoit then pushing the pushrod in alot of times, and that purged all the bubbles and alot of garbage fluid. Since we finsihed at about 10, we're going to get some more fluid tomorrow and flush out the rest of the old stuff and hopefully a few more bubbles if they're in there.
It's working pretty damn good now http://www.camaros.net/forum/biggrin.gif
thanks!