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Air in the hydraulic clutch

J

johnnyc14

Guest
Guest
My 08 C14 with 40,000 km has started to get air in the clutch hydraulics if left for a few days without riding it. I can't see any sign of a fluid leak but somehow the air is getting in. I have to bleed the clutch every time I go out to ride. The clutch fluid was changed at 20,000 km and it has worked fine until the last couple of weeks. I wondering if anyone else has had this problem.
 
My '09 has issues too. The clutch slave was leaking slightly out the weap hole last year, not real noticable until the system was sucking in air to the system. Warranty replaced the slave cyl. But it took a long, long time, bleeding the system just a bit to get a bubble or two out. Every 2 weeks or so a few bubbles would bleed out of the master cly bleed zerk. I could feel the bit of air in the system with the lever. On occasion I would have to adjust the lever to compensate for the bubbles in the line until I was able to bleed off the bubbles. Just recently, after a year of bleeding bubbles, since the slave was replaced,  the lever is staying solid...so far.
 
my 08 does it too.  no visible leaks, but if left for a few days or if it is very cold i will not have a clutch (or not much of one).  pumping it several times seems to help before putting it in gear, and the only solution for the cold symptoms is to ride it.  when the engine reaches operating temperature, all is well again.

my dealer has no idea what is wrong with it and ma kaw wont authorize any more time to look at it. bleeding the clutch and replacing the fluid twice has not helped. i even sent them video of it acting up. 

at this point, its just a minor inconvenience...
 
i have to consider it a minor inconvenience because i have no other alternative.  if kaw cant or wont figure it out, then i doubt ill have much luck short of changing out parts at my expense.

the video is dated, as i took it from my cell phone.  it labels pics/vids with date and time as the file name.  kaw has seen it and they had no explanation and chalked it up as normal wear and tear on a high mileage bike. 

i went through some trials with kaw corporate summer of '10 and it nearly turned into a legal battle until they relented. things went wrong with my bike in spades, and i was told "your bike has too many miles to be considered for warranty..." on items that should be fixed. the trick as the bike ages, is they start labeling stuff as 'wear and tear', which isnt covered. i dont think 60k miles on a touring bike is much at all.  how are they gonna treat us when a quantity of bikes hit the 100k mark? i have little faith in the 'unlimited mileage warranty' now.

some of you have clearly not dealt with kaw corporate before.
 
I did a flush 'n fill on my clutch and brakes over the weekend. For some reason I was getting air out of my clutch bleeder. I just kept pumping and filling till the bubbles were gone.
 
tjhess74 said:
my 08 does it too.  no visible leaks, but if left for a few days or if it is very cold i will not have a clutch (or not much of one).  pumping it several times seems to help before putting it in gear, and the only solution for the cold symptoms is to ride it.  when the engine reaches operating temperature, all is well again.

my dealer has no idea what is wrong with it and ma kaw wont authorize any more time to look at it. bleeding the clutch and replacing the fluid twice has not helped. i even sent them video of it acting up. 

at this point, its just a minor inconvenience...
Click to expand...

I'd probably start by replacing the bleeder screws at both the clutch master cylinder and the slave cylinder. One or both of them may be leaking a little around the threads or not sealing properly. They also would be the cheapest component to replace, so I'd start with them. If that didn't fix it, I'd replace the whole slave cylinder.
 
replace the seals on the slave.  That fixed my friends problem.  a couple bucks and about 30 minutes of time start to finish.
 
thanks for the advice guys.  however, itll have to wait til next summer when i get back to the states.
 
Tactical_Mik said:
replace the seals on the slave.  That fixed my friends problem.  a couple bucks and about 30 minutes of time start to finish.
Click to expand...

I think that is probably the answer. The seal for the slave sylinder piston is available as is the piston assembly for the master cylinder. I think I will just order both.

zg1400clutchmaster.gif


zg1400slave.gif


The piston for the master is part # 43020-0013 ($8.75 Canadian) and the slave cylinder piston seal is part # 92049-0086 ($48.01Canadian)
 
Was looking here to see if anyone else has had the problem with the clutch that I have noticed on my 2008. This seemed to have started at the end of the riding season this past fall. When bike has set for a few days very little clutch. Lever will not return completley when pulled. Once I have ridden a few miles and engine is warm all is well until it sets again and then back to very little clutch. Fluid level is good and system has never needed to be bled. One of the winter projects is replace the clutch and brake lines with braided stainless from Gaffer and new fluid so may as well tackle this clutch problem at the same time I think. Any new information or ideas on this clutch thing when cold. Bike is still under warranty so should the clutch fix be covered?
 
There have been a few instances of clutch problems over the last few years. Although not very common, there have been some. I  don't think any one part was the cause of all of them. But I have heard of slave cylinders, master cylinders, etc. (as well as air) being the cause.
 
mahd, you and i share virtually the same problem.  i think the guys here have the solution with replacing the seals.  i tend to think its the cylinder seal since the problem rectifies quickly when the engine warms up.  if it were up at the clutch reservior, it would take longer to heat up, if at all.  im really not sure why the dealer couldnt locate and solve the issue.
 
TJHess74 I agree with you that it is probably on the engine side instead of the master cylinder. Was thinking it was probably the master cylinder until riding the other day and realized the difference was a warm engine. Finally put two and two together and got four!
 
I suspect that the reason the problem goes away when the engine warms up is because the fluid in the slave cylinder expands when it warms and this causes whatever air is in the system to compress.

If replacing the slave cylinder seals is fixing it for other folks, then that would be the course of action I'd take as well.
 
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