Gabe Vajda, Author at Transmission Digest
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Bleed Procedure for GM Concentric Slave Cylinder

If you have been installing clutches for a while, you are probably familiar with the dreaded Ford Ranger concentric slave cylinder and the difficulties and uncertainty presented when you’re attempting to bleed it. Unfortunately, General Motors has followed suit with similar concentric slave cylinders. Most General Motors vehicle designs do not provide access to the slave cylinder without separating the transmission from the engine. Additionally, some models do not have bleed ports.

GM Release-Bearing Installation

The design of the release fork on many GM applications can contribute to a common installation error.

Active Radius

Many newer-design clutch friction discs are designed with a thinner band of friction material than the original disc that came in the vehicle. The thinner band of material on the newer design may seem like a bad thing to some technicians as they compare the new parts with the ones that came out of the vehicle. Conventional thinking would be that more is better; more friction material will mean a stronger clutch.

Self-Aligning Release Bearings

Many of today’s release bearings may not look like the original bearing that was in the vehicle. A large number of release bearings are now of the “self-centering” type.

New-Style BMW Release Bearing

New BMW applications with manual transmissions will use a newstyle release bearing. This new release bearing will incorporate two different mounting positions. The different positions will change what is known as the fork-to-face dimension.