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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Clutch, If it aint broke....

Hi, had the car out to give it a clean and as my clutch has been a bit spongey (but engaged all gears) I thought that I'd change the fluid as i've had it for 3 years and its never been done.

I did it via an eezibleed and the fluid was very dark with bits floating in it, waited for the clearer fluid to come through and nipped the bleed nipple up.

I now have a very slack pedal and no gears, as there was very little air in the system before could I still have an air lock or have I buggered up my master/slave cylinder or both?

Is there a way I can decifer what is wrong before Saturday?

I wont mess with it before Spridget 75!!

All help greatly appreciated

Mark
Mark Whitmore

P.S Its a 1275
Mark Whitmore

I doubt if YOU've b*ggered up anything BUT black gooeygunk in the fluid is a common sign of knackered master cylinder rubbers.

look at it this way you have an opportunity to get it right before Spridget50 and spending hours on the hard shoulder en route to Gaydon next weekend, waiting for someone to tow you the other way is a pretty heart rending fate if it befell you instead

by and large Mark, this way you can be a winner not t'other thing

See you Saturday
Bill

If it worked before,,,it should be okay now....its just a bear to bleed.

The way I do it, is get some "clear" plastic/rubber tubing that will fit the bleed nipple tightly ....about 6ft long hook one end to the bleed nipple and put the othere end in the MC and open the bleed valve about 1/8 to a 1/4 turn then "SLOWLY and gentally" pump the the clutch pedal...when there is no more bubbles in the clear hose tighten the nipple your done....about 15 minutes of pumping.....if you have time Id probably recondition the slave....if not you can do it after wards.


prop
Prop

Sounds like the master cylinder as Bill says. Last time I had this kind of behaviour I bit the bullet and replaced master and slave. It doesn't take very long and it gives you peace of mind.

I can assure you that with the clutch hydraulics, there is absolutely NO smoke without fire!
Rich Amos (1330cc Blaze Red '72)

MArk

The way I used to bleed the clutch is:

- get a bike inner tube, and cut it until you have 12-15" including the valve
- seal up one end (roll it up and fix with a jubilee clip)
- attach the other end to the master cyl with jubilee clip
- (the mcyl is full of fluid, right?!)
- pump up the inner tube - a couple of PSI or so
- release the bleed nut on the slave cyl and watch the fluid and bubbles vent
- when no bubbles and clean fluid are venting, tighten the nut
- try the pedal
- repair inner tube and return to tyre
- return jubilee clips to the heater hose
- etc

This may be good enough... but as Bill says your master cyl piston seal may be perishing. Sometimes the piston has a rusty part under the seal that pushes the rubber away and destroys the seal; and so on.

Of course you need to make sure you don't empty the master cyl reservoir (and it's quite small).

HTH

A
Anthony

Update

I went and purchased a new seal set today and before stripping it all down I thought I'd have one more go at bleeding it (you know whats coming!!)

After bleeding it through once more I had a bit of a peddle but not enough to change gears. I had a couple of hours in the archives last night so tried a couple of the tips, strangely pushing the slave rod back in whilst beeding took me back to square one, as did raising the rear if the car.

I went back to the old way with an assistant and the amount of air that came out was unbelievable.

I know have a better peddle than before and I think that the air was in there all along but the Eezibleed moved it where it could be a pain in the ar*e.

All i well now and I have gears again (well ones that dont crunch!!)
Thanks again for your help
Mark
Mark Whitmore

glad to hear it,

That is just one of the mid level toughest jobs there is, so time consuming....Im al ways amazed at how much air can fit in the system...tthe 1st time I did it, I thought the whol.e clutch system was messed up....grind, grind , and grind.


prop
Prop

I thought it was best to pull the slave cyl. when bleeding so you could tip it and put the air at the top.

--john
jf Falconer

I found this really usefull site and the clutch method described worked first time for me (the seat was out at the time !)

http://www.spriteparts.com.au/bleeding.htm

Richard.
richard boobier

This thread was discussed between 18/05/2008 and 19/05/2008

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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