[Spridgets] Observations and impressions for bleeding the 1500 clutch system

Steve Christiansen schris51 at att.net
Wed Feb 20 22:41:22 MST 2013


Rich, 

I know of this problem.  It is the same problem Triumph has had since
day one with all of the Spitfire, GT6 and Herald.  The cure for bleeding a
clutch is very easy.  I sell a remote bleeder kit for the Midgets and
Spitfires. This makes bleeding a one man process and less than a ten minute
job.  Bleeding can be done without jacking up the car.

Steve Christiansen
Ol
Phartz Partz
714-686-1236
www.olphartz.com
schris51 at att.net
________________________________
 From: Richard Ball
<rich_ball at mindspring.com>
To: spridgets at autox.team.net 
Sent: Tuesday,
February 19, 2013 4:10 PM
Subject: [Spridgets] Observations and impressions
for bleeding the 1500 clutch system
 
Observations and impressions for
bleeding the 1500 clutch system



There have been a few threads posted to the
forums recently on problems
bleeding the 1500 Midget's Hydraulic clutch
system.  Since I just recently had
similar issues I thought I would post my
observations, impressions and
solutions.



A few weeks ago I went out to take
the Midget for a spin up to the store and
was greeted by a non functioning
clutch pedal.  After investigating a bit I
came to the conclusion that the
slave cylinder had finally given out on me.  I
ordered an original Lockheed
rebuild kit from Peter C., did a light honing
pass to clean it up and rebuilt
it.  After getting everything back in and
buttoned up I called for my lovely
assistant Susan (wife) and we set about
trying to bleed it.  Trying is the key
here. We spent an hour plus and at
least a pint of LMA trying to get it
working with no luck.



I see two areas in the system that contribute to
problems bleeding in the
traditional way.



The first problem I needed to
over come was the air that was trapped in the
arch of the line connecting the
master to the slave.  On the 1500 the line is
a transparent tube that arches
up before heading down to the slave.  The
problem I was having was that the
volume of fluid being sent through the line
was not sufficient to move the air
down the vertical rise.  The air bubble
would slide up past the fluid and back
to the high point of the arch.  Phil
Jones came to my aid here by loaning me
his Eezibleed system.  This
pressurized bleeder worked great and was able to
move enough fluid under
pressure to move the air bubble out of the line. 
Unfortunately it took up
residence in the slave cylinder.



The second
problem I came across has to do with the bleed valve on the slave.
First off
it is located slightly below the high point of the cylinder so any
trapped air
can not flow out easily even with the rear of the car raised above
the front. 
Adding to this is the limited space to rotate a wrench placed on
the bleed
valve.   You're only able to open the bleed valve a slight amount to
release
the fluid with a flair nut wrench and hose on the bleed valve.  This
low flow
was not enough to force the air out of the slave.  What I found
worked well
was to use a 7/16 box wrench that could slide off over a hose on
the bleed
valve so I could reposition the wrench and rotated it again several
times.
This allowed me to open the valve much wider.  This in combination with
the
pressure of the Eezibleed to move the fluid cleared all the air that was
still
trapped in the slave.



>From my experience the most successful way to bleed
the clutch on the 1500
Midget is to have a high fluid flow rate so the air in
the system gets caught
up with the fluid flow and pulled out along with it.
Sorry if this was long winded, but I thought it might be useful to others that
are having the same problem.



Rich Ball

'76 Midget
------------------------
spridgets at autox.team.net

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