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Tourer
Posts: 499
Chattanooga, TN | Today, I replaced the clutch fluid and seem to have all the air out of the system. I used a one man operation brake bleeding bottle, and air got into the system inadvertently when I answered a phone call during the bleeding process. Anyway, I used Valvoline Dot 4 brake fluid. Now, the clutch only disengages about halfway. Any ideas on what I may have done wrong? |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 1117
Northeast Ohio | Sounds like you still have air in there. |
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Tourer
Posts: 499
Chattanooga, TN | I agree with that, however when I put the tube to it, only fluid comes out. No air bubbles at all in the tubing, hence my confusion. Wondering if there is something else besides opening the bleeder valve that I should be doing. |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 1117
Northeast Ohio | I changed mine a few weeks ago. I had the bike in a wheel chock to keep it upright, took the clutch cover off, put clear tubing from Lowes on the slave cylinder bleeder and opened. I then pumped the clutch lever, adding fluid along the way until the color coming out of the slave cylinder was the same as the bottle. |
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Tourer
Posts: 499
Chattanooga, TN | Thanks, John. Thats pretty much what I did as well, except the bike was on it's side stand with the handlebars turned hard right to get the master cylinder level. I'm wondering if the slave cylinder could be defective, or if there is a way that I could have gotten an air lock in it that just won't clear. Is that possible? How would a slave cylinder behave if it were on the outs? How would that differ from the clutch lever if it were going bad? The main reason I was changing the fluid is because the bike is over 2 years old with over 15,000 miles on it and it has developed a loud clunk when engaging into gear, more so than normal IMO. Thanks for taking the time to respond. |
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Visionary
Posts: 8144
New Bohemia, VA | I just did mine not long ago and it sounds you re doing it right. I would suggest to start again and purge the system of all possible fluid. Then fill and bleed out the air out. One thing about mine, I've always felt it engaged a little later than what I think it should, but as long as the clutch disengages I'm fine.
Edited by varyder 2010-09-26 9:20 PM
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Iron Butt
Posts: 1117
Northeast Ohio | Is it worse now than before? I would probably detach the slave cylinder from the bracket, make sure the bleeder is pointing straight up and try to bleed it again. Chris, mine is the same way. It sounds like Brian's is the opposite of ours / most right now. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 244
Tucson , AZ | You definetly have air... sometimes the vics take a while to purge the air from the lines. My brakes took a while to get the air out of the rear.. |
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Visionary
Posts: 4278
| Say keep your wheel hard right. Put some clear hose on the bleeder screw on the slave cylinder. Now pump the clutch a few times and hold it in or tight to the bar. Now open the bleeder. Do this over an over after a some time you will see some air bulbs come out. When you open the bleeder screw the lever should touch the handle bar. Never leave the bleeder screw open and not have the lever touching the bar. After some time you will have out what air you can and the clutch should be all most normal. Now when you think your at normal just barley move the lever. Maybe move it it just a 32second if that. Do this several times and you should see little bulbs come out. Now leave the bike alone and come back the next day or a hour later and just barley squeeze the lever more air will come out. You will still have some air in there but as you ride and use the clutch all air will come out.
KEEP this in mind as you squeeze the lever you will push air down the line. But air being air will all ways rise to the highest point like when you turn a bottle of pop over air goes up. I don't think your cylinder is bad and all victory's clunk.
If you still can get it and I will tell you another way. Take your time it all goes slow.
Good Luck |
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Tourer
Posts: 499
Chattanooga, TN | Thanks guys. I got it together tonight. In the end, I needed to remove the slave cylinder like varyder suggested. I was thinking it may be an angle thing with the air bubbles, but really I just needed to push the cylinder in all the way to remove all the air, and bleeding it went really smoothly after that. What a PITA it was prior to that. Thanks again for all your suggestions. BTW, the clutch moves much more smoothly now with new fluid. Glad I did it. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 78
Gilroy, Ca | For anyone needing to do this here is how I did it. First I took off the reservoir cover than went thru the process of removing the side panel under the seat. Than took a 1/4" nut driver to loosen the bleeder valve. Hooked up the vacuum bleeder and pumped away. I refilled the reservoir twice just to make sure. When I reassembled everything the lever was still a little squishy but after riding for about 5 mins it was back to normal. |
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Tourer
Posts: 466
Grand Cane, LA | If you feel that your clutch is not pulling in far enough and there is no air in your system, you can bend the tab that holds the slave cylinder back a little bit to make it pull in further. I wouldn't bend it much though. I did mine to get the little bit of slack out of it and now it moved my clutch engagement closer to halfway out instead of just off the grip. |
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Visionary
Posts: 4278
| Keep bars turned to right
Now go in house and let bike sit. Air goes to the highest place. In morning just pull lever a little bit/ You should see air bubbles come out. Do it a few more times.
If you don't see any bubbles do this.
Remove line from mater cylinder. Hold finger over where banjo bolt goes and squeeze lever. It will push your finger off an fluid will go every where so lots of towels. Now when finger is pushed off master cylinder hold lever down tie lever to grip. Re hook line and then let lever loose and bleed like normal.
In the past I used baby feeder to suck old fluid out then add new and bleed an add that way you don't run dry
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Clutch bleed procedure, please!
