Thread: TD5 Clutch Adjustment

Hi there Jake,

Silly question, is all the air out of the system?

When I did my clutch last year it took three of us to bleed thy system. If you look at where the line runs to the slave you'll see it goes higher than the reservoir. If the system is empty there will be a lot of air to be pushed out, the reservoir does not hold enough fluid to that in one go. If you have to stop the bleeding process to fill up the reservoir the air goes back to the highest point.

My son was on the pedal, my wife was keeping the reservoir full and I was on the bleed valve. The first couple of times we just pushed the pedal without locking the bleed valve. My wife had to top the reservoir up 4-5 times before we had the correct pressure on the pedal.

Hope it helps.

Cheers, Jurgens.

Hi Jake ,to add to Jurgans post , you must get all the air out of the master cyliner , it can take 3,4,or5 pumps of the peddel .You can adjust the push rod at the master to give max throw . You will need some help , the pipe at the masteris were it must be blead , watch fluid levels , once happy with master , see if any air comes out of slave , while being pumped you should then get a peddel . I don't think slave rods came in different lenghts ,as long as it's fixed at the clutch fork end ,it's only air , wash off any spilt fluid . good luck ...jimr1

Hi thanks for that i had another go today and clamped an old radiator hose to the reservoir so i could fill it higher than the other pipes and had my dad pouring while i opened the nipple and did a gravity bleed.
it seems but better but i'm still not happy with how close the clutch point is to the floor . it takes up about an inch from the floor, which feels fine initially but when i am in reverse, in gear but clutch depressed and revving the engine i'm moving a little (not rolling).
i have adjusted what i thought was the correct way on the rod - the outer nut is off as far as it can go which i thought would mean the rod is in as far as it can go when the clutch is in. does this make sense and is this correct?

Hi there Jake,

I might be wrong here but I don't think you'll get all the air out with a gravity bleed. Air will still be trapped in that section where it goes up and over the rear of the engine. If you can force feed it through it might be a better idea.

Cheers, Jurgens.

Hi jake ,you've gone the right way with master rod adjustment, now you've got a pedal it should get better with use . A least you now know that the slave rod is working , you can always re-adjust master push rod once clutch pedal comes good ..good luck ..

ok think i have it sorted. after the gravity bleed i took Jurgens advice and got my parents to give me a hand. mum on the pedal dad on the reservoir ( raised with an extension tube clamped to the top to raise the pressure on the pipe) and me on the bleed nipple. and it became much better.
so it is back on the road. i've missed driving it. off camping next weekend.

though i am unsure why i have had to re adjust the master push rod all the way out when the settings werent touched at all throughout the overhaul of the master cylinder.

anyway thanks to you all for the advice and suggestions as i was almost out of ideas on what to do next.

Jake

Good to hear you're on the road again.

Was a pleasure to pass on the help I received when I did mine.

Well it was .. i thought and had been driving it around town all week feeling good about it. so we went camping near Beaudesert and it just started getting softer and softer and on a hill i tried to drop it back to 4th and couldnt get it into gear ( came to a rolling stop and had to pump it to get into gear). made it to the camp site where i had a great weekend. but didnt make it home again.
tow truck dropped it off at a mechanic ready for today.
they replaced the whole master cylinder which turns out wasn't sleeved very well with a dodgy seal and worn in spots. (i havent looked at it myself but will be sending it back to the place i had it done)

the clutch feels great, but now after the hour drive home had trouble getting it into gear again - mainly 5th to 4th . and then reverse.
any more suggestions?
I Suppose after you iron out one problem then others are visible. hoping its not major but might have to go to the mechanic for a good look.