Hi Everyone,
I have a 1979 240d with a manual 4 speed in it.

A couple months ago, the clutch suddenly stopped working. I found that I was low on fluid (dumped in about 2/3 of one of those small bottles of fluid in before it filled up). I was not able to find any evidence of leaking fluid from the clutch master inside or slave underneath.

I have bled the system, and as far as I can tell, there is no air.

I bled it using a pressure bleeder, pumped up to 15-20psi. The bleeder attaches to the cap of the brake/clutch fluid reservoir, and I hooked a hose from the clutch slave cyl bleeder valve to a bottle beside the car. As I was bleeding it, I watched the fluid coming through and it looked solid with no bubbles. I pumped the clutch pedal while it was bleeding, and the fluid moved faster when I did that, and would retract slightly when I let off the pedal, but then keep bleeding at more of a trickle.

The fluid comes out a sort of golden color. I have actually bled it three times now, and put through about 1.5 quarts of fluid, and it has all been that color when it comes out - slightly darker than it goes in.

I let it bleed out about 1/2 of a quart this time, but stopped it as there was no bubbles visible.

Is there anything wrong with this bleeding procedure, or anything I should be aware of? This is my first time bleeding any clutch system and I am just following the instructions I've found here.

After bleeding, the car will still not go into gear with the clutch. It will go into all the gears with the car off. I am able to start the car in 1st or reverse and move it around like that, but no clutch once it is running.

One strange thing is that the pedal sometimes seems like it is offering barely any resistance, and then occasionally, it will have more. I noticed that after leaving the car run for a while that the pedal was harder to push on the first couple tries. I don't know if that is a coincidence.

Does this information tell you anything that I should look at next. I know people have suggested: first bleed, then slave cyl, then master cyl, then actual mechanical clutch repair/replacement, but does what I have explained tell you anything about what might or might not be operating correctly, to save me some time and $ in replacing parts that don't need to be replaced?

Thanks a ton for any help.

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