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In the 10yrs I've owned my 94 Aero I haven't touched the clutch master; until last week. The clutch wasn't disengaging properly or when it did engage, it was quite low on the stroke.
I didn't really research the clutch bleeding (or more accurately, bleeding the clutch slave) until the Master was replaced and then I started hearing about all the horror stories. Even my Saab indie that's a Ninja responded with "ugh, PITA"
It took me several days and numerous attempts with various components, but I ended up building the $20 pressure bleeder that uses a brake fluid inside a 1/2 Gal garden sprayer. I built the line that uses a pressure gauge on the tank and a Volvo/Mercedes brake fluid reservoir cap (even though I ruined a spare 2-pc Saab cap). I needed to use RTV to seal the brass barb on the cap.
I pressurized the system to almost 20# and then cracked the nipple open a shut a few times. Tested the car and decided to hit it one more time. It's a really quick process, although the brake fluid mess seems to come with the territory.
FYI, I started with a "universal" reservoir cap like you can see online, but it didn't work regardless of how many iterations I tried. The Volvo Mercedes cap worked the first time and worked well. I liked using the sprayer with a gauge mounted on it because once you've put fluid inside and attached the cap, you don't need to mess with the reservoir again. All you do is pump the sprayer to pressurize and then crack the nipple to bleed into a drain tube. While the sprayer is pressurized (at ~20#) it will pump brake fluid in as soon as the system has a low pressure zone (at the nipple). But again, it leaves the reservoir totally full so you'll need a turkey baster and rag handy to remove the excess fluid.
The hardest parts were finding the garden sprayer. I wanted the tiny pump kind like you see online (Motive EZ Bleed), but the first 5 stores I went to only had the single hand-held kind. Also, I started this project Saturday and didn't have a spare Mercedes/Volvo brake fluid reservoir cap so that led to a ton of headaches and disappointment. My total cost was about $25 compared to ~$50+ for the Motive one.
posted by 71.59.14...
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