I was working on swapping out the factory rubber clutch hose/coils in my 91 Miata today with a stainless steel clutch line. I jacked her up and set the stands in place and took of the right front tire. With 8mm closed end wrench in hand, I set out to flush the hydraulic fluid from the clutch system and I was being GENTLE with opening the bleed valve and the valve SHEERED OFF. No fluid came out but the slave cylinder cant be opened to bleed or flush. Bought a new one, so thats the good part and it will be a new one as to the one that came with the car from Japan 20 years ago thats STILL IN the car. Just thought i would share that with you all.
Vigo
SuperDork
12/12/11 9:30 p.m.
Ive had a lot of very important threads on very big parts get ruined by pulling bolts OUT.
It's FUGGIN IRRITATING when something important gets trashed for a reason you had no control over.
So i can relate. Im glad your broken threaded thing was on something small and cheap that didnt turn into a HUGE can of worms.
I'm sure I'll have my share of those in the future. I look at the install of a new slave cylinder in my Miata as a blessing in disguise really, considering that its the one that came with the car 20 years ago. The trickty part is going to be getting the fluid out without a bleeder valve to flush the hydraulic fluid out. I'm thinking that I might be able to loosen up the nut that anchors the hard line to the slave cylinder and have the fluid come out from there, but I'm not too sure if the fluid will just run out like I'm hoping it will or if the fluid will spray out under pressure. I'm hoping for the former.
I don't think it's gonna spray. Unless you've got a nefarious demon in your car mashing the pedal, it shouldn't be under any pressure.
Ok, cool. I'll just be ready for the hydraulic fluid to come running out. Rags and a oil pan and such should help to avoid a messy situation. I'm hoping that nothing turns into a huge can of worms anytime soon.
