[JCtx]

Hi gang. Did a clutch bleed job before, and other than the pedal being soft initially and hardening after a few pumps, everything went fine. Tried to do it with vacuum, but nothing, so treated the valve like a check valve, and everything went fine: pushing pedal expelled fluid; releasing it sucked from the reservoir.

Forward to today, and after 3 pumps, clutch pedal went limp. Watched the line before pedal went completely soft, and saw fluid going down when pushed then back up as I lifted pedal up (WTF?). So the damn thing is not a check valve, or it's messed up.
Anyway, hooked vacuum line and this time it sucked but with a lot of air, then slower with no air. But pedal was still soft. Tried again, and same thing: slow 'solid' fluid initially, then pretty fast with a bunch of air. And pedal still completely soft, even after pumping it like a zillion times. Fluid level at the reservoir never went lower than an inch above (almost at the 'high' mark), so it's not sucking air from above.

Before I try one last time, any ideas what the hell is going on?
And is it a check valve or not?

I have 2 more options:
- Hook a long line where I can plug it with my finger when releasing clutch (manual bleed, of course), and hope pedal eventually pushes all air out.
- Or the one that for sure should fix the problem: a reverse flush, which means injecting fluid from the bottom, but don't have the tool to do that. It's not that expensive, but doubt I'll find it locally. Will check the many air tools I have (and never use), but don't remember seeing a reservoir to do that.

And don't think a pressure bleed would be any different than vacuum, plus the clutch line doesn't even have a clamp, so don't want to consider that option (plus don't have the proper cap either, since I don't like bleeding that way).

All suggestions welcome. Thanks gang.