you shouldn't have to bleed the brakes..
and if the clutch works and feels right when you fill the brake fluid res ..
you're ok there ..
though you may have to bleed it.

the feed line to the clutch slave system goes  off the right side of the
brake fluid res ..
about 2/3rds  of the way up from the bottom ..
so even if all the BF in the clutch system leaked out ..
the brakes should be unaffected.

though any brake fluid in any vanagon that's a couple years old..is due to
be replaced.
  When I get a used dead van ...I bleed the brakes and all the clutch hyd
fluid immediately ....few vanagons get their brake fluid changed regularily
it seems to me.

Brake fluid absorbs moisture out of the air ..eventually it will turn to
'thin black water' ..
by that time it's too late more or less. Changing brake fluid is just a
healthy thing to do for any van.

one warning ..
on very, very old shakey hydrucalic systems that are barely working...but
working ..
often if you bleed those ..it'll just blow out the whole system. ..
so change brake fluid on fairly good hydraulic systems only mainly.

it's not uncomon to replace an old slave, bleed the system ..have it working
well,
then shortly after...the master clutch cylinder goes out next.
Scott
www.turbovans.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark" <mbrush@UMICH.EDU>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2011 5:24 PM
Subject: bleed brakes after clutch slave failure?

> Quick question - If I lost hydraulic fluid through a bad clutch slave
> cylinder, to the point where the brake fluid reservoir got real low (brake
> light came on), will I have to bleed the brake system as well as the
> clutch
> system when adding new fluid?
>
> thanks for any insights!
>
>
> Mark, 1990 Westy, manual