New to hydraulic clutch

[rphillips]

Fix'in to dig into my Kawa. ZRX1100 hydraulic clutch. Clean, flush, and put in new fluid. Is there anything I need to know about these things before digging in? have read there's a tiny return hole to be sure is clean, thinking probably the same as the brake master. I'd hate to get in there and find something I wasn't expecting... Gosh, what was wrong with the old cable that worked fine forever???

[chuck hahn]

Same as doing brakes. Clean master and be sure return ports clean. My experience is just do yourself a favor and rebuild the slave cylinder. Its the lowest point in the system and youll be shocked at the crud and rust thays settled down there. I spray a ton of carb spray from up top to clean the hose out then follow with lots of compressed air. Wrap bleeder with teflon tape when reinstsalling it to get a good thread seal which will make vacuum bleeding the system way easier.

[chuck hahn]

Be easy on letting clutch out first off when riding. Some can be very grabby like its either engaged or its not. Feel it out and get used to it.

[chuck hahn]

Click on OWNER CENTER and follow prompts. You wont see prices but youll be able to paste part numbers on ebay search box or have then handy when contacting stealership. Note you have to scroll to the bottom to fill in bike info to get to the fiches.

https://www.kawasaki.com/en-us/

[Nessism]

Simple answer is to flush some new fluid through, and make sure the return port is open. Deeper truth, because the fluid wasn't maintained properly, and started to jell, thus plugging up the return port, your fluid line is now sure to have a slimy scale on the inside, which cannot be flushed out. New fluid as part of the flush will quickly become contaminated. Don't be surprised if the issue returns in a year or two, or maybe even sooner.

BTW, this is what brake lines look like when the fluid isn't maintained regularly...

P1010652 by nessism, on Flickr

[chuck hahn]

What year is the bike? does it have the metal mid section with rubber on each end like hnda used on their bikes?

[rphillips]

Bike is a 2000 Kawa. ZRX1100. Metal banjo attaches to slave and continuous meta for appx 10" up, then goes under tank. Can't see without removing tank but seems to be rubber from there up to master.

[chuck hahn]

Heres the slave cylinder fiche. The rebuild kits are all over aEbay.. Like i said Kawakji doesnt publish prices but you got part numbers to search with,

https://www.kawasaki.com/en-us/owner-center/parts/31421/2000/ZR1100-C4

May be worth just replacing the line...

https://www.kawasaki.com/en-us/owner-center/parts/31454/2000/ZR1100-C4

[rphillips]

Why ME???. Finally got into flushing the hydraulic clutch on my ZRX, pretty simple, but a dang mess. Just like brakes except you don't get pressure if you pump the lever, only pressure is the clutch springs pushing back against the hydraulics, one pull of the lever or 10 makes no difference. All went reasonably good but why the heck does 5 or 6 drops of fluid run down and drip on the floor as soon as the bleeder is barely opened? Are the bleeders different for a clutch? Is this bleeder something new and improved and just doesn't work as well as the old ones? I've bled brakes for yrs. and never remember a bleeder leaking near this bad, possibly a little moisture around the threads, but nothing like this drip, drip, drip, drip, drip like this one did. Tried to wipe and dry it all off, hope it doesn't melt the black off the eng case. Would be interesting to know if I could replace this bleeder with one from an old brake caliper and fix this aggravation?... 40 mi. run and all seems fine.

[oldGSfan]

Why ME???. Finally got into flushing the hydraulic clutch on my ZRX, pretty simple, but a dang mess. Just like brakes except you don't get pressure if you pump the lever, only pressure is the clutch springs pushing back against the hydraulics, one pull of the lever or 10 makes no difference. All went reasonably good but why the heck does 5 or 6 drops of fluid run down and drip on the floor as soon as the bleeder is barely opened? Are the bleeders different for a clutch? Is this bleeder something new and improved and just doesn't work as well as the old ones? I've bled brakes for yrs. and never remember a bleeder leaking near this bad, possibly a little moisture around the threads, but nothing like this drip, drip, drip, drip, drip like this one did. Tried to wipe and dry it all off, hope it doesn't melt the black off the eng case. Would be interesting to know if I could replace this bleeder with one from an old brake caliper and fix this aggravation?... 40 mi. run and all seems fine.

Fluid gets past the threads. I haven't tried teflon tape like Chuck mentioned. I use heavy marine grease and apply it thick around the base of the bleeder. It helps most of the time.

[rphillips]

Well, maybe I've been lucky but like I said I've been bleeding brakes for a long long time and never seen any bleeder threads leak anything near like this one. When first saw it leaking I thought tubing was cracked or not securely on bleeder, but no it was the threads leaking. Heck the bleeders are very fine thread and are only turned appx. 1/8 turn out. This one leaked like it had course, loose, worn out threads and screwed half way out. Maybe just normal as ya'll have needed to use teflon tape or grease to seal the threads, just new to me as I've not never needed to seal any threads on a bleeder before... Also reinforces my opinion of much rather have a cable. Simpler, less maintenance, less mess, cheaper, and won't leave you stranded as a broke cable will keep clutch engaged so you can ride home or somewhere for help, unlike my hydraulic that completely disengaged my clutch and wouldn't even let me limp somewhere for assistance. Was a learning experience.