Technical Can't bleed clutch on Ducato 2016 manual gearbox

[xj25vm]

Hello all. I am really struggling to get the clutch to bleed on my 2016 Ducato 2.3 Euro 5. Long story - due to EGR issues, I had to remove the engine and gearbox after failing to undo the last nut of the EGR at the back of the engine. While the engine was out, I did the timing and auxiliary belts and tensioner pulleys. While at it, I opened up the belhousing and removed the clutch. As it looked in pretty good condition, I decided to put it all back together. Pretty much everything is back on the van, the engine started straight away, which I was very pleased. However, I just can get the clutch to bleed, no matter which way I try.

1. I have partially pushed out the clip at the slave cylinder, pulled out the hose connector about 2mm, depressed the clutch pedal, pushed the hose connector back in, then lifted the clutch pedal. I repeated this about 30 times. Fluid comes out of the bleed nipple.

2. I also tried to use a brake bleeding kit - which does suck out fluid through the nipple. Yet when I push back in the hose connector, there is still absolutely no pressure whatsoever on the clutch pedal, even if I pump it up and down a number of times on the pedal.

3. I have tried the above with the engine off and with the engine on. No difference.

4. The clutch and the brakes share the same reservoir on Ducato - apparently. Yet, although a fair bit of fluid has come out through the bleed nipple on the slave cylinder, the level of fluid in the brake reservoir seems to hardly have budged.

Am I missing something really obvious here, or as a complete coincidence, somehow the slave cylinder decided to completely go sometime between me taking the engine and gearbox out, and installing them back in? The clutch was working perfectly fine when I got started on removing the engine. Any hints much appreciated.

 

[xj25vm]

In case it helps anyone else doing this job. I managed to bleed the clutch in the end. I still found it quite confusing, as it's hard to tell if bubbles of air are coming up the line of the bleeding kit because I pulled out the hose too far and it is sucking air from the atmosphere, or the bubbles are coming from the clutch pipe/system. In the end what worked was:

1. Attach the hose of the bleeding pump/tool to the clutch slave cylinder nipple
2. Top-up the shared brake/clutch fluid reservoir above the MAX level and leave cap off.
3. Pump up the bleeding tool a number of times to create some vacuum
4. Open up the valve by pulling out the clip to the second trough and extracting the hose connector about 2-3mm carefully
5. Let the bleeding pump extract fluid and air bubbles
6. Pump up the bleeding tool again
7. Press on the clutch pedal once or twice
8. Pump a bit more on the bleeding tool
9. Keep on repeating 4-5 times or more until no air bubbles come through
10. Throughout the procedure, keep an eye on the level of the brake/clutch reservoir and keep topping up as necessary
11. Close the clip/valve.
12. Replace cap of brake/clutch shared reservoir.

I went through about 0.5L of brake fluid. I didn't keep on closing and opening the clip/valve, as I found it unnecessary as long as the bleeding tool kept on having vacuum and pulling fluid and air out of the clutch system without interruption. Eventually the clutch pedal firmed up a bit, but less than I was expecting. Part of the problem I think is that I didn't drive my van for 1.5 months, and I forgot it doesn't need a lot of force to depress the clutch pedal. I tested with the engine running, and the clutch bites nice and low, and the engine pretty much dies if you try to pull away in first gear with the hand-brake on - so I am pretty happy.

Still, I found a real faff bleeding the clutch from completely empty. I also took out the airbox and MAF sensor tubing completely, as it is really frustrating and difficult to get to the clutch bleed nipple with it in the way.

 

[Reg 65]

I bought a Gunsons bleeding kit about 40 years ago and have been successfully using it on all sorts of cars and vans ever since. It has a plastic bottle fluid reservoir you connect to a cap that fits on the master cylinder reservoir. Another pipe goes to the spare tyre and it uses the tyre pressure to pump fluid into the system - you don't need to pump the pedal so its an easy one man operation. Just open the bleed nipple till clean bubble free fluid comes out.