Clutch Slave - Remote Bleeder Mod
 

When I did the AX15 swap on my (automatic) 2001 XJ, I modified the slave cylinder to include a remote bleeder. I purchased an aluminum replacement slave from O'Reilly, cut the factory bleed "port" off, and then welded a 1/8 NPT bung on. This allowed me to thread a 1/8NPT-to-3AN 90" into the housing and run a line up to the engine compartment. I also used 3AN adapters to convert the master and slave line from the factory plastic line to a 3AN braded line. It took a little bit of work, but it makes bleeding a snap and allows for complete fluid changes down the road (same as bleeding the brakes).

Nice work but is it that hard to get under your xj to bleed the clutch ? and that could be one more thing that can go wrong . I'm not trying to be mean .

No offense taken.

It's not hard to crawl under an XJ, but it's still easier to bleed a clutch standing up next to the engine compartment rather than laying on your back having fluid drip in your face. The easier it is to perform maintenance, the more likely that maintenance is to be done regularly.

Zero chance of anything going wrong with this setup (or rather no more chance than the factory setup). Steel braided lines don't fail (nobody thinks twice about using them in brake lines), the fittings are direct replacement for the factory line's ends, and the bleed screw is no different than a caliper bleeder. Certainly there's more parts in the system, but provided a person assembles the stuff correctly the first time (and checks for leaks), it's golden.

This is awesome.



Gunna sell this as a kit? I would if I were you.


I am assuming that if you have long arms(or short legs) you could bleed it by yourself by reaching out the window:p

That's too high of an investment for it to be profitable. I think the XJ market is a bunch of tight wads for the most part (myself included). For it to be worth your time, you would need to sell the kits around $200. Hard to swallow a $140 mark-up for an easier bleed setup.

BUT, for a one off for personal use - Awesome work! I had a 2002 Z28 for a few years. That thing was a bear to bleed the clutch. The slave was mounted on the trans input shaft, in the bell housing. There was a small hole in the side of the bell housing that you reached through with a socket and fished around till you found the bleeder screw. There wasn't enough room between the bell housing and the floorpan. Best method was to cut a hole in the floorpan, peel the carpet back, and hit the bleeder from inside the car. Worked ok, but then all of the fluid belched into the bell housing and dripped out the bottom. What a mess. TO install a bleeder hose had to be done when the transmission was dropped.

Unfortunately, there's no way to install a bleed line on the factory slave cylinder without modification. Rather than having a brake style bleeder, the factory slave cylinder uses a tapered setscrew and a weep hole. I initially thought I could just stick a banjo bolt in place of the setscrew, but that left the weep hole open so it has to be sealed/plugged. Because the factory slave is plastic, that makes sealing/plugging the weep hole pretty much impossible as plastic can be hard to get stuff to stock to reliably (JB weld might work but then it also might spring a leak 20 miles down a dirt road with no cell service). So the only reliable way to seal the weep hole is to purchase an aluminum slave ($60) which can then be welded. That's what makes this "kit" so expensive. All the random fittings and braided lines were less than $100.

I had a 2001 Z28 and yeah, the factory clutch bleed setup was a pain. I'm going to say GM realizes that nobody ever bleeds their clutch system so no point going through expense to make it easy. I installed a remote bleeder on my Z28 (ran the line up into the engine compartment near the clutch master) at the same time as a heavier clutch (the factory clutch didn't last long) and never looked back. Here's what's going on my C5 as soon as I have a reason/excuse to pull the clutch: Remote Clutch Bleeder Kit For C5 Corvette & Z06. It's ridiculously expensive for a piece of braided line and two fittings, but on the Vette it is impossible to bleed the clutch without removing a bunch of stuff.