First let's diagnose if it's a master, slave, or air.
1. 8mm box end wrench onto the bleed nipple at the master.
2. Paper towel over the bleed hole.
3. Open bleeder, pull the lever to the grip, close bleeder, release lever.
4. Is there a change in lever pull as in a stronger resistance?

---

I've always started at the slave.You COULD warm the bike up,shut it off,then carefully lean the beast over to it's right side(sitting on bike)and supported by a wall, and work the clutch several times.That should jar any bubbles towards the nipple.Then put bike upright,not leaning to the left,and bleed the slave.That's a bit extreme,but I did that once or twice.Got some air out that was hanging up in the slave and such.My clutch action doesn't actually start until about 1/2 to 3/4 inch of lever pull.
Is there EVER any residue of fluid on the bleed valves or calipers?Even a small film?Or under the res cap area?

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 7/29/2017 @ 8:29 PM *

It shouldn't be necessary to perform motorcycle aerobatics to bleed the system. It was designed to be bled with the bike upright and that sort of thing. If you follow the prescribed methods in the service manual (or maybe even owner's manual covers bleeding..not sure) you should end up with a successful bleed. To me I still find it easier to follow the service manual but use a vacuum bleeder.

One of the easiest things to do is not let air get in there in the first place. When I'm flushing the brake lines (replacing all fluid) I will bleed from from the (calipers or slave cylinder) and, stop and fill the reservoir before it empties. If it hit's bottom and you hear sucking you're going to need to bleed at the master cylinder.

You're right Vic.I've only done that maybe twice when I felt something wasn't quite right.

For every action (air into the slave) is a reaction (leak where the air entered), so no leak, no air.

The plates grow so any extra heat, the lever is going to change.

---

I've never understood how accelerating harder than normal can have this effect on the lever temporarily.

Seems to be heat related. Could be the clutch pack is too high. The tolerence is 1 mm. If the clutch pack is too high, the pusher rod needs to extend farther. Heat the clutch pack up and it gains a little more height. Now the pusher has to extend as far as it will reach and it cannot open up enough gap between the plates to get them to release.

Did you check the stack height when you replaced the plates? If you installed new fibers to replace the old ones with 0 wear, that would have maintained the same hieght that was (maybe) causing the problem. You would need to put in steels of the proper thickness to adjust the clutch pack height and from the thicknesses they come in, <1 mm could make a difference for you.

---

Also make sure you have your judder spring and seat in properly.

I don;t think you need to concern yourself with removing the basket. You could get a good idea of what the clutch pack height just taking the clutch cover off. Remove the clutch pack to measure precisely if you need to.

---

Where is the air coming from?

Are you sure that was not just air seeping past the threads iin the bleeder. Sucks in past thethreads and right back out the hole in the bleeder. Not a problem. You just need to recognize it. Tiny bubbles=seepage past threads. Big gaps of air=air in your system.

It isn't normal that the mc goes down rapidly and the slave goes draws far less fluid. That would make sense given your problem of no clutch pressure and no apparent clutch disengagement. There is no pressure going to the slave.

EXTREMELY slow and saw NOTHING coming out the bleed hose. After topping off the reservoir a couple of times and getting frustrated, suddenly fluid started shooting into the hose with a lot of bubbles.

Sounds like you got air in your MC. Sometimes they take a while to get the fluid to fill the air pockets. I've had this problem too. Imagine Suzuki does not even give you a bleeder on the MC.

I lost a lot of the old fluid to remove the old valve at the slave. So I know there was quite a bit of air in the system as I began bleeding.

The MC goes dry, you have a lot of pumping to do. If it was just a minute or two, I would not think it woyld be too bad though. 30-40 pumps maybe before the air pockets fill?

Hang in there KAK. You're getting somewhere with this.

---

Please don't take this the wrong way as I'm not trying to be a dick.
I want to question your bleeding technic. I know when you say 2000 times it is an exaggeration because you are frustrated. Getting air out of the hydraulic system takes patience with slow methodical steps, each bleed cycle taking several seconds to make it work.
Try with the reservoir full, pull clutch lever in and hold. Only open MC bleed screw enough to slowly let fluid out. When fluid and air stops close bleed screw and slowly release clutch lever. The reason for slow is to not agitate the fluid or cause cavitation in the system while going through this process. Air bubbles take time to float to the top where the bleed port is. Also without the clutch providing return pressure to the fluid the MC is trying to replenish from the reservoir and it could be pulling air in past the piston seal if you are releasing the clutch lever to quickly.
Something else you might try is to crack open the slave bleed screw just a little bit while bleeding the MC.
Hang in there, I know this can be frustrating when it doesn't go right.
Dave

When I replaced the clutch line with stainless steel lines there was a ton of air in MC and I found it basically impossible to bleed by pumping the clutch lever. However I have a vacuum bleeder which got the process started then bled it using the clutch lever for the rest and everything has been working fine.

I've been using a vacuum bleeder on the cars for years and as Rook mentioned, you'll see small bubbles constantly as there is air that gets sucked in through the threads. I wrapped the bleeders with teflon tape to stop that from happening however I've never seen that happen by pushing the fluid down using the clutch/brake lever.

When I was bleeding the clutch using the lever I found the fluid in the reservoir dropping pretty rapidly, something like 8 pumps/bleeds could empty the reservoir completely.

If you're seeing air at the top bleeder you're getting air somehow (not sure how sorry) in at the M/C. Do you have the stock lever or an aftermarket one?

speaking of which, I tried my mity-vac AGAIN and it is totally worthless. Does not even work after the fluid starts flowing. Maybe if I used PTFE on the threads but sucking with the mighty-vac seems a lot less effective than creating pressure from the inside with the MC. I know, everyone else loves their mighty-vac.

---

The main reason I quit using the Mity-Vac was air kept showing in the tube. It wasn't just small bubbles like I've heard many here say to ignore as air passing through the bleeder threads. It was a constant, endless chain of larger bubbles. There was no way to tell if the bleed was doing anything to expel air actually trapped somewhere. I tried snugging the bleeder valve down and then slowly opening it the absolute minimum to allow fluid to flow and it was the same thing over and over. I still have the 'vac but I doubt I'll ever try it again.

Same here but that's after I get the fluid to start flowing by bleeding with the MC. The Mighty-vac won't do that. There's little to no fluid coming into the drain cup wile I'm pumping the mighty-vac and seeing the big gaps of air so I assume it's bleeding so slow and weak that the air passing through the threads actually has time to form a bubble. My tittyvac sucks and not in a good way at all. $80 for a piece of junk. I hope I have better luck using it to pump fluid UP from the bottom because it doesn't suck worth a sh!t.

---