Alfetta clutch slave bleeding

[graham.hilder@domain.elided (Graham Hilder)]

Hullo Digesti,

I've often read on the Digest of folks having trouble bleeding all the air =
out of their clutch slave cylinders on Alfettas and GTV6s etc, with the =
recommended solution usually being to unbolt the cylinder from the car and =
turn it so the bleed nipple is uppermost. Well I had to bleed mine =
recently...... I had totally emptied the master cylinder to give it a =
much-needed clean-out, so naturally a lot of air got into the system, and =
I expected a good few bubbles at the slave when I began bleeding it. But =
the bubbles just went on and on, and after going through about 250 ml of =
new fluid I thought dash it, I'm going to have to wrestle with those =
blasted inaccessible nuts to dismount the slave and turn it over. But on =
an impulse I first measured the clutch fork travel, in case by some fluke =
it was adequate, and sure enough it was right up to spec....... in fact =
exceeding spec. Great.... there was no need to do anything more at all.=20

So, the thing is, there was a never-ending stream of tiny bubbles at the =
bleed screw, but it seems that in reality there was no air in the system =
at all, according to the excellent clutch fork travel. I now seem to =
recall that the same may have happened at my previous Alfetta fluid change =
also (but it's hard to remember for certain).  Anyway I'm wondering if =
this bleed screw pointing down (instead of up as normal) somehow draws air =
from around the screw and into the fluid in the bleed-tube, as the fluid =
passes out of the cylinder and along the tube?  (Meaning that the bubbles =
seen in the tube did not come from air within the hydraulic system at =
all). All very curious, but the end result is that these never-ending =
bubbles were a false alarm in my case..... the clutch hydraulics were =
working perfectly well, in spite of the bubbles, and I wonder if other =
reports of Alfetta clutch slave bleeding-difficulties have also been false =
alarms?  =20

Best regards,
GrahamHilder,
New Zealand.
GTV, Alfetta GTV, Alfasuds.

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