[mara]

You'll soon work out I'm not an experience spanner man, so please bear with me.

After a great, long ride out on Sunday, this morning on the way to work the clutch on my ST4 packed up - the fluid resevoir was empty. I have read on the net that leaking slave cylinders are quite common, so I suspect this.

In order to get me moving again, I bought fluid and a bleeding kit. I read the instructions and expected a very straight forward process.

I slackened the bleed nipple on the top of the slave cylinder and attached a bleed pipe. I filled to the max mark with fluid and pumped the clutch lever. I expected air and then a flood of pumping clutch fluid. However after much pumping the lever, I got an unconvincing trickle of brake fluid.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, I tried it with and without the top on the fluid resevoir, with the black rubber insert (what's the purpose of this insert, I assume it's removed to fill the fluid).

After several attempts the clutch is still not working as I think the line is full of air.

Any suggestions welcome, do I have to fix the slave cylinder seal before the line will bleed properly? Could it be a problem with the master cylinder?

I would welcome some guidance as its now July and the bike is stuck in the garage.

Many thanks.