Attempted repeatedly. No luck 😞 after about 4 attempts, did get the ability to shift with a lot of effort, mostly into 2, 3, and 5. Multiple repeats did not improve results further.

Do you have the RJM clutch pedal assembly. It looks like you do. If so you have to bleed it with the eccentric in a certain position. It won't bleed right otherwise. A couple of guys have had issues on here before. Contact Zspeed, he can help you out. I think his name is Joe.

Yes I do have the rjm! Thanks Spooler, that's potentially huge

Right in the RJM manual - when bleeding have to adjust AFP to 0 or the master cylinder will never quite bleed correctly. Will update if this works!

That's what manuals are for. To read after you have issues. LOL I always bleed the MC first, then the CSC. Break loose the line at the MC while the wifey has the clutch pedal depressed (after pumping 3 times) and then tighten back up. Do it until no air escapes.

You da man!

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I'm at about 70% function now. Bled it repeatedly, can't quite get it finished tonight. Hopefully tomorrow. I can get into all gears now, but everything past first is pretty notchy. Reverse is a crap shoot, can get into gear maybe half the time.

You are making progress!

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The one in the engine bay i assume, right where it exits the mc?

The one right off the MC. Yes. If this doesn't get it done let me know. The next questions will be on how you adjusted the rod from the MC where it connects to the clutch pedal. With your eccentric on Zero, you should have about 1/8in of play before you feel the pedal make contact with the pressure plate. So it should be kinda floppy in the 1/8in. If it is tight all the way at the top, it won't bleed correctly either. It will be kinda challenging since we have that stupid return spring on the clutch pedal. Not sure if you have it on the RJM pedal. I just got done feeding the horses and re-doing waters. It's 11:00pm and I am sweating, Welcome to the south Ga. heat for me.

Will do, and I appreciate the support. Right now, there is slight play in the pedal. I'll have a chance to look more closely after work/trying the MC trick.

Update 6/21... still no luck bleeding the clutch.

One of my buddies who works at a local (non-nissan) dealership came by last night to give me a hand since my wife is in Jersey for work.

1)I've adjusted both the RJM clutch pedal to 0 AFP and adjusted the master cylinder clevis rod to make sure it's going in squarely/smoothly.
2) I pumped the clutch pedal 3x and held down. Friend loosened the connection at the master cylinder, and did get a bubble out of that. Repeated 2x more, until it stopped bubbling at that connection point.
3) We repeated everything we'd done before, again. Friend under the car at the bleeder valve, me pumping up the pedal (moderate speed so as not to froth the fluid and introduce bubbles), holding down at the end, he closes the valve. Regardless of what we did, we were still getting air bubbles out. We've checked all visible fittings/connections, and everything is tightened.

It almost seems like air is being reintroduced to the system somewhere. This is with a brand new master cylinder (oem) and a zspeed HD CSC. We've gone through the Zspeed procedure. We've gone through the FSM procedure. At best right now I have an incredibly notchy series of shifts (it did improve enough that I can get into gear - reverse is still a complete crap shoot) and side note, the midweight z1 flywheel sounds like a frigging tractor! :eek: I was expecting louder, but this is pretty crazy.

I'm pretty much ready to throw in the towel at this point, have it towed to RT Tuning and see what they can come up with. It's beyond my skill set at this point.

If you are getting bubbles it sounds like you do have an air leak. I remember from before other folks have had issues with the bleeder. Call Joe a Zspeed and see what he says.

Note to self. Before installing. Bench bleed the new master and check the bleeder seat.

When you mounted the CSC, was the bleeder hose at the top of the CSC. If not, you will never get all the air out. I looked at the picture of it
and it may not be possible to get it wrong but I figured I would ask. I can see inside your tranny bell housing picture. Wish I could.

Fortunately the bleeder hose comes "pre installed" so there's no real way to screw that up ;) I guess you could put the kit in backwards, but the hose would never reach through the rubber housing. I installed as pictured in the DIY, that part I'm certain is done correctly.

On old school type hydraulic clutches; You loosen the bleeder screw & have someone mash the clutch & then tighten the bleeder screw...before they let clutch backup.
Unlike brakes-as you pump them up & loosen while someone is holding pedal.

These Z clutch's may be totally different than one's i've done in the past though.
:)

We did try that. Fortunately, I'm tied in with a local Z enthusiast group, and they're giving me a hand this next week! I'll let you know how it goes.

If you know the master is bled, a good option is to just gravity bleed the rest. Fill up the reservoir, open the bleeder valve, and let the fluid push the air out via gravity. As already mentioned, a clear tube can help you see the air bubbles coming out of the bleeder valve. Keep an eye on the reservoir and close the bleeder valve after the air bubbles stop and fluid drains smoothly.

:iagree:

I use a Mityvac for all hydraulic bleeding. It does a good job and you do not need a second person pumping pedals and getting confused about the terms "up", "down" or "hold".

https://www.amazon.com/Mityvac-MITMV...ords=MITMV8500

I never have any problem, I always use vac pump.

:iagree:

I have run into problems with a vac pump. Ended up using a pressure bleeder.

Post up here if you still have issues. The last thing to do is adjust the length of the rod going into the Master Cylinder.

Quick update: So I never did get the clutch "properly" bled. I did get it so that I could move the car into gear, albeit poorly. My attempts to bleed it ended last Thursday around this time.

Basically, I realized the z1 flywheel is not for me. It's obnoxiously loud, and that chatter really isn't a joke. I guess I should clarify - for me, I could deal with it. My wife absolutely would not.

I reached out to RT Tuning first, and they didn't get back to me; talked to my local enthusiast group, VQ Philly, and got a recommendation through them. Sent a few emails, good bit of research. Final decision is I'm swapping the Z1 clutch setup for the South Bend Quiet Disk from Zspeed, and the CMAK setup. The CMAK and flywheel arrived yesterday, friction disk and pressure plate should be in today. Z is already at the garage, and I'll be dropping the materials off today - fingers crossed, it should be done tomorrow. The proprietor has bled quite a few of these clutches without issue, and will walk me through it so that I know what I did incorrectly.

Thanks again everyone for your support!

Sounds like a good game plan. I too ended up buying the Zspeed flywheel with quiet disc + CMAK

I just asked Joe for the lightest and loudest flywheel he's got. He said 17 lbs but I know there's a 14 lb one floating around out there :)

Haha a bold move!

Yeah, there is a 14 pounder. :yum:

Update with the happy ending: car is back and running great! I'll follow this with 2 other posts, the first entitled "how not to install your flywheel" and the 2nd as a review of the South Bend Stage 3 setup + quiet disk + CMAK.

that's great news :tup:
On the road again :happydance:

How not to install a flywheel
 

I hate posting this because it wounds my pride, but I'll take that if it means some other guy does this right the first time! This entire process was a very valuable learning experience, but not one I'd willingly go through again. As mentioned in episode 14, our intrepid hero attempted his own clutch replacement for the first time with limited success (and hidden failure, which we shall now reveal! But do not be discouraged good viewer - in the end, our hero is triumphant!)

As previously noted, I got a decent recommendation on a local VQ guy. Turns out his day job is working for Infiniti, and he's also spent time with Ferrari, which is pretty cool. He also has a pretty neat 06 g35 with a 2jz swap putting down around 1200 whp. So it's not his first rodeo.

All of the pieces for my new clutch kit arrived by Thursday of last week, and I dropped them off at his shop Thursday evening. 10 pm, I get a message from him, complete with video - my flywheel had been loose. The awful noise I had assumed was chatter was the flywheel vibrating against the crank.

On the plus side, other than being started and reversed into my driveway, the car had not been driven in this condition. I'm pretty sure eventually the flywheel would have vibrated the bolts out with catastrophic results.

Joey (shop owner) was a pretty good teacher, and walked me through his process. His opinion was when I seated the flywheel, it actually had not slid all the way into place over the center spindle. His recommendation for seating is to 1) Loosely install the flywheel; 2) insert a couple of the bolts opposite each other and finger tighten only; 3) use a rubber mallet to tap the flywheel into place. It should cause a visible gap between the flywheel bolts and the flywheel. At that point, install all the bolts finger tight, and follow the FSM torque pattern.

Complications this caused: Thanks to my error, I stripped the ends of the flywheel bolts. This ended up being a mixed blessing. Because the bolts stripped, they only damaged the first thread in the crank (cleaned up with a tap, and new flywheel bolts held torque @ spec).
It is very possible that I could've damaged my crank to the point where I'd have had to either rig some way of entirely re-tapping oversize holes into it, using a screw thread insert, or actually rendering it unusable. So let that be a warning to you, dear reader! This is the real down side of only knowing what I'm doing through DIY's - you miss really important things like this.

Eventually my ego should stop bleeding and I'll be able to move on.

SouthBend Stage 3 + CMAK + LW flywheel
 

Now that I've revealed my foolishness in the previous episode, it's time to reveal my thoughts on the new clutch setup. As you know, I'm using the RJM pedal, and right now it's set at 0% where I left it after trying to bleed my clutch.

My new setup is the SouthBend Stage 3, with CMAK, the quiet disk option, stainless steel clutch line, and the 19 lb flywheel. Stage 3 was chosen in expectation of eventually going FI.

-Pedal pressure has increased, as I expected it would. Not a big deal for me, but if the Z is your DD and you have a weak leg or constant traffic and no RJM pedal, you may not enjoy this experience.
-Clutch chatter is present but extremely minimal. The quiet disk option is a good choice.
-Car does rev faster, and an interesting side effect that I just noticed this morning is the lesser weight means when I come off the accelerator, there is less sensation of "bogging down". I lack the appropriate vocabulary to describe it. Suffice it to say, that was a pleasant and unexpected change.
-Engagement is much more abrupt, and that's not a bad thing. The stock clutch always left me guessing, and it was a rare day when I felt I really nailed my shifts smoothly. I have no such issue with the new setup.

I'll play with the settings on the RJM pedal a bit tonight after work, but I'm guessing I'll be happy with around 30%. Obviously I've changed a lot of variables, so I couldn't tell you exactly what portion was the CMAK, etc, but I can tell you the overall experience is very positive.

Glad you found the problem. :tup:

Flywheels coming off the end of the crank is never a good thing. It could have come up through the floor board and removed your feet from your legs. Had a buddy years ago that a '65 Mustang with a 289 lose a flywheel. It come up through the floor board and hood. Him and another guy both got hurt. It did a number on the Mustang.

I have the exact same setup that will be going in late August, wanna join the party? I can feed you guys really well. :tup:

:iagree:

I'd love to, but I'll actually be in Iceland from the 18th-25th. Let me know when you decide to tackle it!

It's one of those things where I'm ridiculously glad I couldn't get the clutch properly bled. May have saved my feet. Like I said above, it's a hit to my ego - until now I've been really successful with my modding - but I'm incredibly glad that, if it had to go bad, it went the way it did.

Could have been much worse, that's for sure. Glad the Z is up and running again :driving:

I'm still wrestling with the decision whether or not to do my clutch replacement in my garage or not. Dropping the transmission on jack stands is not fun. Plus I'm sure I'll do something like you did :icon17: