Wow....what frustration. I just installed a new clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing, master and slave cylinder. Bled the air out and I have 80% dead clutch peddle travel.The last 20% provides some resistance but not enough to fully disengage the clutch. I've bled the system several times by first compressing the slave cylinder and using a Motive pressure bleeder. Several times using the old pump and release. I'm getting clear fluid with no air.. The clutch friction disk is installed the right direction and the throw out was installed correctly unless it slipped off the fork during reinstall. However there is no strange grinding rattling or any other noise when the car is idling....just 80% floppy clutch peddle.

 

The 80% floppy pedal sure sounds like you might have a stubborn pocket of air left in the system somewhere. One trick that I've had good luck using on MINI (and Triumph) hydraulic clutches is to "reverse bleed": Unbolt the slave cylinder, hold it pointing down (so that the connection to the line is the highest point), let the piston fully extend. Then slowly compress the piston all the way back in till it hits bottom, repeat this a few times. This may help force any remaining air back up thru the system and out the top.

Jason

 

Thanks for your suggestion. I have one more trick I'll try that I found on the internet today. A DIY'er had the same issue and suggested depressing the clutch peddle for 24 hours by wedging a piece of wood between the clutch peddle and the seat base. In theory this bleeds the trapped air out of the master cylinder. Several others posted that as crazy as it sounded it worked for them as well.

I'll know tomorrow.

 

My friend's BMW repair shop had a Mini that just would not bleed. Their solution was to replace the clutch slave and master cylinder! While this may seem excessive I now always replace the plastic slave cylinders as part of a clutch job because I have seen two recent clutch failures caused by plastic slave cylinder malfunctions.

 

The stick trick absolutely worked!!!! Full clutch; mission success.

Anyone that's facing a clutch replacement keep this tip handy. It would have saved me countless hours of bleeding, swapping parts out, and frustration.