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Hi everyone, First post, so hi to all, I have been enjoying reading the content of the forum and have recently purchase a 1995 VFR with 73,000km on the clock. I had one brand new back in ‘96 and have come to my senses and bought another one. I have been doing all the regular maintenance for a new to me bike but am having terrible trouble bleeding the clutch. I have blead about 1.5lt of brake fluid through using a compressed air bleeder ( I did do it the traditional way first with no joy), burped the banjo bolts at the master and slave (no air evident), raised the master above the banjo and tapped it to dislodge air while pulling the lever in slowly and letting it go quickly. I have gone to the extreme and removed the master and slave from the bike to try and bleed the system. If I pull the lever quickly, I get pressure and the clutch operates, if I pull it slowly, it pulls all the way in without engaging the clutch. I have covered the slave bleed nipple in grease (around the thread) to ensure no air leaking in through the threads. I have linked a video below, and I hope some kind VFR owner has some insight into what the heck I am doing wrong.

Hi everyone, I am trying to put a 1998 vfr back on the road and am having trouble bleeding the brakes. The bike has 17,xxx miles and was rideable as purchased but ran rough and didn't start easily. I have already done a tune up, added a VFRness, replaced and rebuilt the forks (bent in an accident), greased the head bearings, changed coolant, added speed bleeders all around and replaced all the brake pads. Clutch has already been bled and the lever feels very firm. There is also a long list of missing bits and broken plastic to deal with in time. Unfortunately the manual doesn't make much sense to me since I'm not using a vacuum bleeder. Bare with me as I try to explain. I have already used a few bottles of brake fluid attempting the bleed the brakes and all fluid is coming out clear. I'm attempting to bleed in this order: Front right caliper top bleeder (pump at hand lever), front right caliper center bleeder (pump at foot lever), front left caliper top bleeder (with caliper removed and tilted to help air escape, pumped at hand lever and secondary master cylinder), front left caliper center bleeder (pump at foot lever), rear caliper front bleeder (pump at foot lever), rear caliper center bleeder (pump at foot lever), and then bled at the proportion valve (foot lever). The rear brakes feels strong but the front lever is weak. I repeated this procedure when I continued to see air bubbles rising from the proportion valve bleeder, but I believe this is related to the secondary master cylinder. With all bleeders closed and pressing the rear brake lever firmly down I can hear some gurgling or squeaking in the lines up front. I can also hear something strange with the system closed and pumping the secondary cylinder manually. It feels like it's not moving much fluid, and appears to be moving barely any fluid at all out of the proportion valve bleeder when opened. However, pumping the secondary master cylinder appears to add air to the lines, because when I pump the secondary cylinder by hand and then press on the foot lever I get a lot of air out of the proportion valve. I have repeated this ad nauseum with four bottles of brake fluid to no improvement. The secondary master cylinder continues to feel like it hasn't been primed and just sloshes fluid back and forth, and whenever I pump the secondary and go to back to the proportion valve air bubbles still come out. Any advice?

Went to ride this morning and the clutch would BARELY let me get it in gear, but the bike began rolling and finally no more clutch pressure. Back into the carport... Clutch master cyl was totally dry, went and got DOT4 brake fluid and just went through a bleeding operation on clutch. Fill reservoir Squeeze clutch lever Open bleeder on Slave Close Bleeder on Slave Release clutch lever check reservoir level (refill as needed) REPEAT. Is that right? Because I have flushed all the old fluid out of the system and now get clear fluid from the bleeder. But I still have zero pressure building up in the clutch lever. Notes: Made sure reservoir was never low/empty Noticed that after waiting 10-15 seconds between one session and REPEAT, there was a much stronger "flush" when opening the bleeder Reservoir level did go down slowly, so I know I was pushing fluid into the lines. Any idea or experience on what's still wrong? I just read this on the "other" vfr forum... - When you rebuild your slave and the system will be "dry" again. Sometimes if you fool with a dry M/C and pull the lever all the way back before refilling the piston seal will ketch an edge of the port of the fluid path and flip the seal backward. (SOB!) After that no matter how many pumps - you wont get pressure. You got fluid on both sides of the piston! The only fix after that is to drain it and disassemble and flip the seal back in the correct direction. - To avoid, pull the lever back only about half way till you get going with some pressure first. - Lesson learned - dont pull lever back to the handlebar on a dry M/C.