I need to leave tomorrow, and I cannot bleed the clutch. It was bled before and working perfectly. I did the engine swap and tried bleeding again using gravity and the standard down-open-close-up on the slave. That lasted a little bit, but then the clutch just started dying. I have no fluid loss and I don't see wet spots anywhere either. I am at a loss. Could something internal in the master or slave have gone kaput? HELP!

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1983 240D 3.0T 4-speed manual, now sold

1989 Subaru GL Wagon 5-speed Touring Edition

Brake and/or Clutch Bleeding = cheap pressure bleeder


just a thought.

These clutches take brake fluid from the reservoir, true?

IF this is the case (I'm pretty sure it is but not completely) --- make sure BOTH compartments of the brake fluid reservoir are filled. There's a back chamber that can only be filled by practically overflowing the front compartment (which is where fluid from your bottle pours through the cap) and letting it cross through a tiny little passage at the top of the reservoir into the back tank.

We thought our master cylinder had failed during the first brake bleed we ever did and rushed out and bought a replacement before we realized that the back chamber was completely empty.

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~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL

You could use the factory method, which rarely works for me personally, where you open the bleeder on the driver front caliper, connect the brake bleeder to the slave bleeder with hose, and use the brake pedal to slowly prime the line from below. If you do that and its working properly, should take 15-20 pumps of the brake pedal to prime the clutch system.

Then another 20 or so pumps of the clutch pedal should give you a good clutch.

Reality- I have only had that work for me once, usually I use a mity-vac from below and draw brake fluid down until I have a solid stream and no air bubbles, then I close it all up, and pump that sucker 300-500 times which usually results in a good clutch pedal. That was on new parts, so it took forever, should be less for you

If you have no leaks and you have solid fluid, could be a matter of pumping the clutch pedal for a long time, and I mean "WTF am I doing, it must be broken" long time.

Leaks, the clutch master could be leaking internally, the slave could be leaking into the bell from the seal there, the rubber line could be cracked and leaking, could be leaking from the fittings. However, its probably just a big air pocket if you opened the system

Guy over on STD just had this problem too, and it took him about 350 pumps to get his pedal back.

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

I have used a pump-up style pressure bleeder successfully several times - from the bottom up. Hook up the pressure bleeder to the output nipple of the slave cyl, and pressurize the system from the bottom up. I believe this allows the air bubbles a much easier path to escape, as opposed to trying to push the bubbles "downhill".

My 2 cents,

SteveM

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'93 190E/D 2.5 Turbodiesel 5-speed (daily driver)
'87 190D 2.5 Turbo rustbucket - parts car
'84 Dodge Rampage diesel - Land Speed Record Holder
'13 Ram 2500 Diesel
'05 Toyota 4Runner

Alright, I went and got the grease gun type thing and tried that, still nothing. Is this the symptom of a failed master cylinder? I'll try that method again and pump the pedal a bunch.

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1983 240D 3.0T 4-speed manual, now sold

1989 Subaru GL Wagon 5-speed Touring Edition

Bled it again and kept pumping. It is definitely bled and there is absolutely no resistance in the pedal. I'm going to get a new master and slave (thank God for Carquest) and install the master first because I don't see how the slave can fail internally. I also checked the slave piston rod and it does not move at all, so that rules out mechanical failure.

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1983 240D 3.0T 4-speed manual, now sold

1989 Subaru GL Wagon 5-speed Touring Edition

Well, I have failed. I did not specify "clutch" in my master cylinder order. I'm sort of relieved, seeing as theirs cost twice as much as only. So, I've ordered the master and slave and I'm replacing both next weekend and then drive it to school.

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1983 240D 3.0T 4-speed manual, now sold

1989 Subaru GL Wagon 5-speed Touring Edition

When installing the clutch master make sure you use a push rod that is the correct length, you could reuse the original. When i did my transmission swap I found out about the two different rods.

If you use a rod that's too short like i did you'll bleed forever but the rod isn't long enough to shift. Not fun... Good luck!

I used the factory RF wheel to slave and teflon taped the bleed screws.
Then had my wife slowly pump the brake pedal while opening and closing the slave bleeder. This was the third time I used this method but the first time with taped bleeders so no air was drawn in and third time was the charm

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1981 240D 143k 4 spd manual -SOLD

2004 VW Jetta TDI 5 speed 300k -still driven daily

Busted there is only one chamber for fluid as far as I know , it works top to bottom not back to front like some other vehicles. This way you run out of clutch before you run out of brakes. I tried the oil can bottom to top bleed but as I found out too late the bleed screw leaks like a sieve, should have taped the bleed screw as suggested but it was already on the road before I noticed. Part of the problem is the routing of the hydraulic line , the rubber bit forms a nice upward loop when installed which traps air really well. I suspect that the most effective method is a variation of the oil can strategy as you need a large uninterupted volume of fluid to get past that loop. Cheers Dan

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It's always something simple
91 300D 603.960 (from japan) 194K
92 Toyota Diesel Landcruiser HDJ81-t 116K
02 Golf TDI new head courtesy of PO
87 300D
97 BMW 525 TDS Wagon 5spd
bunch of Onan and other diesel generators

Jeballes,

My advice: Don't miss your first weekend at school coming back to fix the 240. Hang out at school and come back At you leisure and get it straightened out.

When you get a chance to come back, let me know and I'll lend a hand. Being under pressure to fix a car that's 200 miles away sucks.

And if you need to get the 240 off the property, there's a cozy home for it next to my parts car :-)

dd

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'85 300D, 'Lance',250k, ... winter beater (100k on franken-Frybrid 3 Valve Kit)
'82 300D, 'Tex', 228k body / 170k engine ... summer car
'83 300TD Cali Wagon 210k, wife's car

Well, turns out the parts aren't coming 'til Monday anyway, so I won't be able to do it this weekend. Probably come back next weekend, though, cause it's a 3 day weekend. My mum does want it off the property, but if I can't keep it on campus, I'm just gonna keep it in a municipal garage. Going to and from school is not easy without a car. Thanks, though.

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1983 240D 3.0T 4-speed manual, now sold

1989 Subaru GL Wagon 5-speed Touring Edition

Why won't hooking a pressure bleeder up to the brake resevoir and cracking the slave cylinder bleed screw just like you are bleeding brakes work on these cars?

Scott

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Scott
1982 Mercedes 240D, 4 speed, 275,000
1988 Porsche 944 Turbo S (70,000)
1987 Porsche 911 Coupe 109,000 (sold)
1998 Mercedes E300 TurboDiesel 147,000 (sold)
1985 Mercedes 300D 227,000 (totaled by inattentive driver with no insurance!)
1997 Mercedes E300 Diesel 236,000 (sold)
1995 Ducati 900SS (sold)
1987 VW Jetta GLI 157,000 (sold)
1986 Camaro 125,000 (sold - P.O.S.)
1977 Corvette L82 125,000 (sold)
1965 Pontiac GTO 15,000 restored (sold)

I haven't worked on a manual Benz, but have worked on other clutch systems.

The problem is that the master cylinder outlet is in the middle, so it's hard to force all the air out of it. The inlet is on top, so reverse bleeding gets the air out of the master cylinder very quickly.

That's to say nothing of the slave cylinder, of course. I had one car that needed to be bled both ways to get it right.