Bleeding the Clutch : Drive Train / Gearbox / Final Drive by LotusElan.net

Bleeding the Clutch

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Post by: patrics » Sun Sep 01, 2024 3:05 pm

Hi,
Whilst I’m putting my Elan back together so I can sell it – after 38 years thought I would write a few notes as I go!
Hope it’s helpful.
If the slave is fitted then mark the orientation of the hose and slave so it can be refitted in the same place – assuming it was actually fitted correctly.
When you actually refit the slave to the bell housing make sure the piston is fully retracted then adjust as per the manual.
This might sound a bit complicated but in practise it is very easy and straight forward. More importantly the clutch will be bled and you won’t have used gallons of brake fluid – Start to finish I probably used less than a 100ml of fluid.

Regards
Steve

Attachments

: Take the slave off and strip it down and clean with some IPA or brake fluid. Don’t use any abrasive other wise you will damage the anodising. Early cylinders were not anodised and tended to ware out but the later ones are, and much better. You can check if it is anodised by doing a continuity check with a multi-meter; if it isn’t anodised then it will have good continuity and if it is there will be no continuity.
Reassemble and push the piston fully in to the cylinder

: Fill the slave with brake fluid using a syringe

: Fill the slave with brake fluid using a syringe

: Bleed the hose in the usual way via the brake pedal. I managed on my own because there was enough length on the hose to bring it out of the car and still press the pedal and lock off the bleed screw.

: I use a 10mm barrel connector and bleed screw on the end of the hose

: I make up my own hoses which is easy to do, which is why I have a continuous hose with a bracket.

: Connect the slave to the hose, making sure the timing of the hose is correct. Also be careful that you use the right face of the banjo otherwise the hose will be twisted when you install it.

: So now remove the bleed screw keeping the cylinder roughly level with the master cylinder – If you get the height correct then the fluid won’t leak out or return to the master cylinder. If you need to top it up use the syringe directly into the slave. You can now move the cylinder up and down and watch the fluid rise and fall – you will see bubbles of air rise to the surface. You could also tap the body gently with the wooden handle of a small hammer.

: Once all the air has escaped top the bleed screw port up with fluid and re-insert the bleed screw.
If not fitting straight away then hang the cylinder up so the piston doesn’t fall out.