Gravity bleeding clutch hydraulics

I've never done this.  I'm actually not 100% sure I have gravity bled brakes before either.  But given its a pandemic and the only room mate I have is a 5 year old, I want to do this alone.

Just fill the reservoir (shared with brakes in this case), put some clear hose on and open the bleed screw?  How slowly should I expect it to come out/how long should I let it bleed?

Basically yes.

Depends on the vehicle.  Some work nicely, some never bleed without a pressure bleeder.

Yes, it depends on the vehicle imo. Meanwhile some bleeder kits come with tapered rubber fittings that can be pressed/turned slightly into the bleeder screw hole (bleeder screw removed of course). Such rubber fittings can make things easier (i.e. no air in the clear hose = you're pretty much done on that leg).

I've never been successful gravity bleeding anything on the car.  Pressure is the way to go- the Motive bleeder and vehicle-specific caps I bought a few years ago has paid for itself many times over.

Some cars are horrible bleeding...had to use  to use the harbor freight pneumatic brake bleeder for clutch bleeding on my mom's 7th gen Civic, which would not bleed using the two person method. Even using the pneumatic bleeder gave me fits until a friend told me about letting the bleeder run until I closed toe valve on the slave. Which did the trick because it seemed that car easily introduced air into the line

Use a regular oil can/oiler filled with brake fluid and fill the clutch through the slave bleeder.

I've used the cheap harbor freight pneumatic bleeder with great success. I've also installed speed bleeders in clutch slave cylinders and that worked great. Never had luck with gravity bleeding. 

I just pushed the slave cylinder back and forth until the bubbles coming out the reservoir stopped. 

I have an oil can that I use to pump fluid into the system. I hook a hose to the oil can, after I pump the fluid into to the system,  I use the method laid out in the Carroll Smith books, drop the  hose from the bleeder into a jar of fluid and just pump the peddle. This usually does the trick in short order.

HopmanJones said:

I just pushed the slave cylinder back and forth until the bubbles coming out the reservoir stopped. 

One man operation?  No bleeder you mean?  I used to play with Saturns a lot, and this is how their clutch assembly works.  It self-bleeds when you use it, there is no bleeder.

This car (Kia) is apparently not like that.

ProDarwin said:

HopmanJones said:

I just pushed the slave cylinder back and forth until the bubbles coming out the reservoir stopped. 

One man operation?  No bleeder you mean?  I used to play with Saturns a lot, and this is how their clutch assembly works.  It self-bleeds when you use it, there is no bleeder.

This car (Kia) is apparently not like that.

This was on my mazda3 with a bleeder on the clutch slave. But I was working by myself and was getting impatient, and gave it a shot. The clutch and brakes share the same reservoir. I overfilled the reservoir and just slowly pushed the slave rod back and forth until there was no bubbles coming out the reservoir and the fluid level dropped to where it should be. 
I'm sure this is an YMMV situation based on how the car is plumbed. 

In reply to ProDarwin :

Advance Auto Parts does the rent-for-free on a vac pump for one-man bleeding of brakes.  If your clutch does have a bleeder valve, this is the method.  

I recently did the back brake on my F250 in the same manner.  The hose in the lower left of picture is hooked up to my ole MityVac

ay or may not help in your case, but with the MGB it really helps if you can push and hold the slave piston all the way back into the piston bore. It minimizes the volume of area to be bled and gives air bubbles less space to hide. If the piston is held firmly in place, it also tells you when the system is bled because it goes solid.

I have had the gravity bleed work on MGBs but it did not work on Miata brakes. Mostly I use the vacuum pump if I am flying solo.

here's a question - as I have had cars (like my 84 f250) that self-bleed the clutch. Truly, just refill the master and pump the pedal until it works.  

IF we can make self-bleeding clutch systems, why in berk do they not ALL self-bleed?

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

here's a question - as I have had cars (like my 84 f250) that self-bleed the clutch. Truly, just refill the master and pump the pedal until it works.  

IF we can make self-bleeding clutch systems, why in berk do they not ALL self-bleed?

I don't understand this either.