84 Vanagon AAZ converted - clutch issue

[?Waldo?]

[gladi8r]

UPDATE

I finally got a hold of the PO and he recalls needing to have a different shaft installed and had actually driven it around the block one time. There is no gap. I have not tried to move the crank because I pretty much ruled that out.

I had my buddy try to gravity bleed and we either did something wrong or bled too much without refilling it. Anyway, we manually bled at the master then slave from scratch. I took some time to get a pedal and after I got some pedal each time we opened it up it seemed to need a lot of pumping.

At a certain point I just pumped the crap out of the pedal and it got firmer to the point I could barely get it into the gears. So now I'm at the point that I am 50/50 that it's tn air issue or the master.

Does anyone know why these are so tricky to bleed? Has anyone considered trying to engineer some upgrade that would have easier adjustment and maybe a bit more throw?

I'm going to gravity bleed it one last time (myself). and if that doesn't work I'll replace the master and probably pick up a spare slave to have handy.

For gravity bleeding, do you put the tube inside a bottle of fluid or you can just let it drip out?

All help appreciated.

[?Waldo?]

I've never found it particularly difficult to bleed in the typical manner of one person pumping the pedal and one person operating the bleeder. I've found that it does not really work well if you just pump it normally or 'pump the crap out of the pedal'. You need to either close the bleeder for each upstroke or do the downstrokes fast and the upstrokes slowly. I don't know that gravity bleeding will work. The lines are large enough diameter that the bubbles will be able to move up the line at the same time a small amount of fluid will flow around the air in the opposite direction. At this point I use my pressure bleeder for solo bleeding.

[Waldi]

It is so difficult to bleed because of a wide plastic tube which is going from the cluch cylinder in the front to the matal tube under the car.
Once air is inside this plastic turbe there is no way to get it pushed down out from front to back. Also the metal tube under the car is wider than the brake lines which makes it more difficult to push the air.
The easiest way is with a smal manual oil pump from back to front. Can be done alone.

[mappley]

I just got through this exact challenge with an '82 Westy I swapped an AAZ into, where I too could not shift into gear, and a wheel would spin if jacked up.
I replaced the master and slave cylinders and bled the system with a friend but to no avail. I then gravity bled it with the van pointing slightly downhill, nope, still availess. What ended up working for me was putting in a slightly longer push rod between the slave and the tranny lever, combined with gravity bleeding with the van pointing down a slightly steeper hill. I got lucky and had one kicking around the shop. I think there's a thread around here somewhere where some folks have made their own, so if the bleeding doesn't work, maybe give that a shot. Also, I noticed now that I've got it working that the shifting box under the gearshift handle is very stiff and needs some lube, so maybe get some grease in there and the shaft that goes back to the tranny as well. Good Luck!