Greetings, I'm new here. I've just bought a '93 Accord EX and I'm having a clutch problem. I got into the car the other morning and the clutch was on the floor. With the clutch on the floor the gears would not shift but the car would start. No symptoms were present when I last drove the car the night before. So it seemed the master cylinder was leaking as well as the slave cylinder and the clutch fluid reservoir was empty (forgot to check... haven't owned a car with hydraulic clutch in a long time). I changed the master cylinder and slave cylinder no problem and cheap enough. Everything is in and fine, no leaks and I've bled the system to the best of my knowledge. There is now SOME pressure in the pedal and the car does shift and drive just fine BUT the pedal is mushy and won't spring back. There's not enough pressure to make it spring back. and the mushy shift that I do get is somewhere on the floor.

My question is that if I feel that I've bled the system properly and I've still got a mushy pedal is there something else?? The release bearing or forK??

The car is totally stock 2.2L 16V except a cold air intake.

Thanks in advance.

Brian

 

Sounds like you don't have it bled enough. Do it with two people and it'll be a lot easier. If you're not sure how to do it pick up a Haynes manual.

 

get a one man bleeder kit, but use 2 people anyway, fill the reservoir, make sure some fluid is in the bleeder bottle, loosen the valve on the slave, mash the clutch and pull it back out rapidly with your hand, when you feel enough pressure that makes difficult to push in yell to close the valve. Make sure the reservoir is full at all times, it will empty very fast bleeding like this.

Test it out, you should be good to go.

 

Hmm. I always bled the clutch by pumping it, then you hold the clutch down, open the bleeder valve until fluid comes out, then you close the bleeder valve, then you let off the clutch and pump....etc. Because if you pull the clutch back out with the bleeder valve open its going to suck air into the line.

 

I was hoping to hear that I should try bleeding again, just to explain what I've done: I had to bleed the line alone so it could very well be the case. What I did: I put a tight fitting hose on the bleeder valve and immersed the other end in about an inch or so of fluid that was in a jar. All the while the reservoir was full during both of these tries: First I tried pumping the clutch which, thinking obviously, the fluid in the jar is being sucked into the line and air being pushed out. I got a little bit of pedal resistance this way but then tried the more standard: push clutch to floor with valve undone>close valve> pull clutch up>repeat. With this method I got the mushy pedal feel that I'm trying to remedy.

Bleeding lines has always seemed to confound me regardless of how much I think I understand it so I'm hoping bleeing again will work. I'll try the advice and keep my fingers crossed...... just can't afford to pay someone to crack open the trans axle.

Thanks, you guys are much nicer than the VW guys.

Brian

 

So. About bleeding lines. When you pump the pedal, it's going to compress the fluid and the air (if there is any) in the line. As long as the resovior is somewhat full it won't pull in any air through there. Be sure the cap is off so it won't make a vaccuum. If you pump the pedal a bunch the pressure will drive the air near the end of the line (bleeder valve), since the air can be compressed a lot more than the fluid. You have to keep the pedal down to maintain the pressure, and then you release the pressure (and air) through the bleeder valve, until liquid starts streaming out. You close the valve then, and when you release the pedal the line pulls in fluid from the resivior to re-balance the pressure. Hope that makes it a little more understandable.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by accord2021 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Hmm. I always bled the clutch by pumping it, then you hold the clutch down, open the bleeder valve until fluid comes out, then you close the bleeder valve, then you let off the clutch and pump....etc. Because if you pull the clutch back out with the bleeder valve open its going to suck air into the line.</TD></TR></TABLE>
thats why you are supposed to put a short piece of rubber hose over the bleeder nipple and run it into a container of brake fluid.

 

i second the one man bleeder. i have never owned or really driven a 5spd until i recently converted mine. i did my complete swap allll my myself. which means bleeding alone. i picked up a 30 dollar bleeder from autozone and went at it. i pumped for maybe 15-20 minutes. about 10-15 mins in, when my reservior ran low just after 2 squeezes of the trigger, i knew it was bleed. just keep and one hand on the pump trigger and the other hand have a bottle of fluid ready to pour more into the reserivor tank. i had no problem with my pedal begining mushy or spring back.

 

Well, I figured it out.

There was still air in the line AND the pedal was out of adjustment. When I put the MC in I threaded the push rod in/out of the little bracket so I could fit it easily onto the pedal. So one of the problems I wrote about was that the stroke was too short. Now it is properly adjusted and springs back fine.

One man bleeder kit for $30 at Auto Zone

Thanks for the help.

brian