Clutch Bleeding

[nuts]

I was talking to a fellow who has a 96 Scorpa. He's been trying to bleed the clutch but tells me there is no bleed screw on the slave cylinder and he can't figure out how he's supposed to bleed the air out of this thing. I told him I was clueless (as if he didn't know), but I'd pass the question on to the Scorpa gods in cyberspace.

Anyone had any experience with this?

[brucej]

I helped a friend of mine do this job on his 96 Scorpa last summer. I don't know if this is the best way to do it, but it worked for us, so I'll pass it along. First of all, you have to find a way to keep the piston in the slave cylinder from moving as you pump the clutch lever. We used a c-clamp, with some pieces of aluminum sheet metal to protect the piston and outer surface of the slave cyl.. With the clamp in place, sqeeze the lever to apply pressure to the system, then crack open the bolt in the banjo fitting to let air escape. Close it quickly, before the lever has been pulled all the way into the bar. You have to be really fast! Repeat until no more air comes out and the lever feels solid. This is definitely a two person job! Bruce

[charliechitlins]

If that's the case, I suppose you could hold the lever to the handlebar with a strong rubberband (piece of innertube) while you crack the banjo fitting.

That would make it a one-person job.

[brucej]

You want to close the fitting while pressure is still greater inside the system than outside, to prevent sucking air back into the line. Therefore you need to close it while the lever is still being pulled in or just as it reaches the bars. With 2 people you can get a full stroke of the lever, which makes the job a little easier. If you can rig the rubber band so that the lever is as far out as possible to start, and pulls the lever all the way in when you open the fitting, then it should work, too.

Edited June 9, 2004 by brucej