Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2014 15:00:46 -0400
Reply-To: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Clutch slave cyl. replacement: What could go wrong?
Well.....Friday sort of.
In-Reply-To: <CAHTkEuKE=i_iR9SELkbKJ8cTeiUL0AYOMkfvM_eVXL8GROGNPQ@mail.gmail.com>
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You pumped a brake pressure bleeder up to 20 psi? So what part of the reservoir and connecting system was designed for pressure? Watching the reservoir tank swell at 2 or 3 psi tells me to stop. This should not be necessary to do the job. Things on the pressure side operate at much higher pressures so this is not even a good method for lea testing.
Dennis
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Don Hanson
Sent: Friday, September 5, 2014 5:16 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Clutch slave cyl. replacement: What could go wrong? Well.....Friday sort of.
I'm pretty sure my clutch slave cylinder failed yesterday. No clutch
action, bled it and drove some but this A.M., I checked in theslave's rubber boot and it was full of hydraulic fluid. The brake fluid reservoir would not hold pressure very long from my Motive pressure bleeder either.....
"No problemo" says I..."I have a spare under my seat" I've done these
before and while it is a nasty messy job and frustrating with the rear mounting bolt, it isn't rocket surgery....
So first I have to fix one of my jacks tands, it's been semi-broken for
some time...the pawl would release, but only with fiddling. I find the
roll pin is broken connecting the shaft of the pawl and the lever to
release it. OK, so I do that.
Dig into my brake bleeding box and find my bleed hose...It's turned to gum and is no longer serviceable.. It feels like an eraser now, not
resilient at all, won't stay on the bleed screw. OK, fix that.
I decide I should inspect for leaks in the whole brake/clutch system. I fill my Motive pressure bleeder bottle and screw it onto the brake reservoir above the steering wheel, then pump it up to about 20psi and
crawl under to look for leaks.. After about 3 minutes rolling around on
my creeper I find no leaking but.....I hear a "Phut...psssssssssss,
ker-thump!" "Uh-Oh!" I roll out and find the hose between the pressure
bleeder and the brake res. has popped.....and there is brake fluid sprayed
from end to end....inside the van...All over everything. Including my
very pricey bike, some sailboards, clothes, upholstery, pillows, headliner...it even got to the rear hatch window! What a mess! So a couple of hours trying to clean the brake fluid off every-frikken thing...
Next, I decide "OK, no leaks...I'll just put on the new slave and bleed
it with my mighty vac and be done" but of course, the Mighty vac (or
whatever harbor freight calls theirs) also has rotten gummy hoses that need fixed. Then it sucks fluid into the 'squeeze pump' rather than into the cannister that it's supposed to go into...So I have brake fluid running up my arm into my pit....as I try to bleed the air out of the slave....Now I am a REAL mess, the shop floor is puddled and the inside of the van is trashed. Hopefully I got all the brake fluid off my Colnago, which is worth more than my van..
So next, I take my spare Blue Hose hydraulic line and put that onto my Motive Pressure bleeder to fix THAT, and finally.....finally....bleed the slave without anything blowing up or leaking all over everything...Oh, wait....when I go to remove the excess fluid from the reservoir, the horse syringe I use....the plunger comes all the way out and I dump brake fluid on the floor of the van...no worries.... as it's already saturated from my recent blow out of the pressure bleeder...
Sheesh! What could go wrong on such a simple task?....those are some of the things that did go wrong....
(at least it isn't a windy day and I am not missing out on windsurfing time to take a brake fluid bath....Ha!)
Don Hanson