Making Clutch Bleeding Easy

by Reed Simmons

From the discussion a couple of weeks ago concerning the difficulty involved in getting to the clutch bleed screw (i.e removing much of the interiors), I decided to improve the situation.

What I did was to replace the slave cylinder bleed screw with a 12 inch length of brake line piping which had the correct size male fittings on both ends (3/16"), plus I attached a double female fitting on one end to which the bleed screw is threaded into. This pipe is bent into a "J" shape and exits about even with the front of the transmission.

I fashioned a small bracket from scrap aluminum which I fastened to the front of the transmission using one of the available bolts. The other end of this bracket holds the clutch bleed extension pipe in order to keep it steady. The bottom line is that it works GREAT and no problem encountered thus far.

If anyone is intending to try this modification make sure the pipe you buy has ends that are convex and not concave or the seal will not be good. Also I used a 12 inch length of pipe witch is OK but I would have preferred a length of around 14 inches. The lengths commonly available at auto parts stores include 12 inch and 20 inch but nothing in between.

Now I can bleed my clutch hydraulics as often as I wish while keeping a smile on my face.