Bleedin\' Clutch..........HELP!
 

OK, how exactly does one bleed the clutch???
I started the "10 minute" job by pressurising the lever a few times, held it in, open bleed nipple, a few bubbles and fluid came out, retightened nipple, release lever....ALL pressure has gone ! Lever just comes back to the bar!

I have now tried a pressure bleeder using 25psi from a bicycle tyre...nope.
Sucking through from the nipple end...no joy.
Remove slave cylinder..pop out piston, prime with fluid, reassemble, start again...nope.

I have obviously got a major amount of air trapped somewhere in the system...(near handlebar end or in the slave cylinder?) - how do I get it out?
Currently there is NO opressure in the system and the lever comes right back to the bar!
I am in despair (putting it mildly).
Any ideas???

be paitent, - it seems to take hours, well it did me anyway, - i bought a mitec(?) pump thingy and was forever pumping fluid out and topping the resevoir up, - it reads as such an easy job in the Haynes book.
Good luck.

If you removed the clutchline connection at the top of the slave you may want to just make sure the hole for the fluid aligns with the tube when screwing it back in - you may have to add/remove washers or rotate tube slightly. If misaligned I imagine it can reduce the pressure of the fluid getting into the slave (though, I had it misaligned by 180o and had somehow still bled it). You're also supposed to pump a couple of times with the cover/seal removed on the master (bleed valve tightened) to remove air in the master - don't know if that really does anything though. Also, release the lever *slowly* after tightening the nipple (you should see the level go down in the master during this time). Could you have a leaky slave seal? You would likely have seen fluid around the pushrod when you removed the slave if this was the case but only if you were looking carefully - I don't think a total leak is necessary to stop it from working. I still don't trust the seal on Ducati slaves after being stranded remotely - just checked the seal on my Evoluzione one after a couple of thousand miles and looks fine (though clutch is strangely biting later than usual and friction plates look fine - maybe I've a bleeding problem too but spent an hour or so rebleeding and no difference). Another recurring problem I have is the pushrod bearing on the clutch side keeps locking after a few thousand miles - this can result in the pushrod spinning at the speed of the engine inside the slave cylinder - I'm convinced it's one of the root causes for slave cylinders failing (esp. the Ducati ones with the flimsy single seal). If you've a stock slave and you're bike's <2001 I'd recommend an after market slave like the evoluzione one (I don't know whether Ducati have really fixed this problem on later bikes - I know their seal on the re-engineered slave for the '99 996 didn't look like a significant improvement to me. Good luck

Not more clutch problems Ricky, I hace used a G-clamp across the slave cylinder before to hold the piston nearly fully in and so cutting down the amount of volume where air can be trapped. Also using a Banjo bolt with a bleed nipple in the mastercylinder end helps as trapped air prefers to rise and would rather come out of the top of the system.
on the other hand the seal in the master cylinder may have cone and its not really pushing the fluid any where.
Kev

I had the same trouble when I fitted a Techmoto slave cylinder, then read about removing the master cylinder, and tilting it to allow trapped air to rise up into the pot......worked for me :)