My new to my ‘01 Valkyrie clutch master cylinder window was a bit brown but not bad. I decided to change fluid anyway. When I emptied out the cylinder it was coated on the bottom with brown mud. Looks like the PO only added fluid when needed and never went further. I disassembled the master and cleaned it all up. After about 1/2 hr of bleeding the system, I have clutch again. Luckily, none of the mud was in the line.
Now on to the front brakes.
I had the same issue from the PO on my VTX. I also got a lot of sludge in the calipers and especially the clutch slave cylinder. Used an entire large bottle of brake fluid flushing them.
I usually just take a shop towel (you know, the blue, lint-free paper towels) and soak it up a bit at a time. Once most of it is gone, I'll spray brake cleaner in there to clean and dilute what's left, and then soak that up as well.
Quite some time ago I purchased a vacuum pump for bleeding brakes and I use that to get most of the old fluid out and then a rag or shop towel etc. For the $20 or so the vacuum pump has been invaluable for a variety of jobs.
One of the valks I bought had the same problem. I didn't take a chance and took it apart from one end to the other. I cleaned all the parts and flush the hose, why take a chance.
I cleaned out and rebuilt both the clutch and front brake master cylinders. The most difficult was the circlips which were pretty crusty. An overnight soak in penetrating fluid (atf and acetone) did the trick. A couple of flushes with new fluid and all is good for another 20 years.
What works even better than a turkey baster is a large syringe from Fleet Farm or some type of animal or farm supply store. And using them for years for all sorts of stuff.
Turkey Baster here also.
I 'heat soften' the nozzle, insert the back end of a drill bit and make the hole smaller via plier squeez'ns. The fluid doesn't run out as fast.
As I do yard/garage sales I find the smaller basters. They don't suck up as much but the smaller one's takes up less space in the tool bag.
When I do one thing, I'll side-step a little & learn few more things.
After fiddling around with turkey basters not working so well, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Use the My-T-Vac. Sucked it all out of the reservoir like a charm.
A local inventor has figured a way to turn a sausage grinder backward to manufacture pigs.
♫ 99 Little Bugs in the Code, ♪
♪ 99 Bugs in the Code. ♫
♫ Take one down, Patch it around, ♪
♫ 127 Little Bugs in the Code. ♫ ♪
~Mark
lgjhn wrote: ↑Thu Apr 29, 2021 7:42 am
The pic below is what I dug out of the clutch slave cylinder on a much-neglected ’97 1500.
IMG_1605.jpg
Wild.
I need to do the same. Is there a link to getting at the 1500 clutch slave cylinder instructions here? The search is bringing back tons of results, but seemingly all of people who’ve done it / are doing it and their experiences but I can’t find the How To guide.
lgjhn wrote: ↑Thu Apr 29, 2021 7:42 am
The pic below is what I dug out of the clutch slave cylinder on a much-neglected ’97 1500.
IMG_1605.jpg
Wild.
I need to do the same. Is there a link to getting at the 1500 clutch slave cylinder instructions here? The search is bringing back tons of results, but seemingly all of people who’ve done it / are doing it and their experiences but I can’t find the How To guide.
A pretty efficient way to refill is from the bleeder at the slave cyl. It will push all the air up to the reservoir. Side benny is you know the return hole is clear.
I should mention it takes a few minutes to fill the slave cyl so make sure when one does this to give the slave time to fill up. When you get fluid in the master then give a few more minutes to make sure the slave is full. You'll see when bubbles quit appearing in the master. No guessing involved.
Great idea, fill from bottom up!! I have some large syringes left over from a big surgery I had several years back. Had to "flush" my feeding tube out several times a day. These plus correct size tubing should work great. Probably could use for brakes also if careful.
Sunshinenomad wrote: ↑Tue Apr 27, 2021 6:44 pm
I cleaned out and rebuilt both the clutch and front brake master cylinders. The most difficult was the circlips which were pretty crusty. An overnight soak in penetrating fluid (atf and acetone) did the trick. A couple of flushes with new fluid and all is good for another 20 years.
Looks like the PO only added fluid when needed and never went further. I disassembled the master and cleaned it all up. After about 1/2 hr of bleeding the system, I have clutch again. Luckily, none of the mud was in the line. 
