Poxy Clutch

Despite many years of working on various Landys I have begun to lose the will to live.
Changed out the clutch master and slave on my TD5 Defender as was having trouble selecting gears from a standstill. New clutch fitted two years ago so prettyt sure its not that.
30 mins to do the spannering and three days later still can not get the poxy system bled properly.
Have used a pressure bleeder from the master with no joy. Reverse bled from the slave with both vacuum and pressure in both directions still no joy.
Front of motor is three feet in the air and tried gravity bleeding overnight with the pedal jammed down - no joy.
Made up a jig to hold the slave piston in the cylinder and tried bleeding with the slave higher than the master - no joy.
Just been and bought a box of swan vestas and considering a boxing day bonfire with a Defender as the centre piece.
Any tips gratefully received. Clutch is working but does not feel good and drags slightly so suspect air still in system.
Help !!!

I've never been able to fully bleed a clutch manually, my method has always been to get it to a point where it works and then drive it and the system self-bleeds after that. You can feel the pedal get better over the next couple of days, and keep checking the fluid - topping up where necessary.

Retroanaconda said:

I've never been able to fully bleed a clutch manually, my method has always been to get it to a point where it works and then drive it and the system self-bleeds after that. You can feel the pedal get better over the next couple of days, and keep checking the fluid - topping up where necessary.

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Had the same experience here. Just had to get it back on the road so settled for a slushy feeling pedal with the intention of sorting it out in a few days. after a few days driving it sorted itself out and has been fine ever since. Dunno how it works, maybe the bit of air in the pipes floats to the top over time?

Going to give it one more go at reverse bleeding under pressure and then I guess I'll try the driving around method and see what happens. Who would have thought such a simple job on other motors would be such a b*gger on a Defender.

sit there pumping the pedal, then suddenly it will clear
its the damper causing the trouble

My theory is that the fluid gets a bit frothy so that it takes the air a while to settle out, so is unlikely to bleed completely in a single pass. Leave it to sit for a bit and bleed again in a few days and things may well get better.

pressbrake said:

sit there pumping the pedal, then suddenly it will clear
its the damper causing the trouble

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Cheers Clive. I left it overnight with the pedal wedged down and it is a lot firmer so at least I can drive it around a bit. Here's hoping the rest of the air will clear with use. I can't see why such a simple system is such a pain to bleed. I did my brakes with no issues and they are a lot more complicated. Looking on the bright side at least the clutch itself is OK as I did not relish taking the engine out again.