DIY Brake Bleeder
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DIY Brake Bleeder
I thought this looked interesting and fun/easy to do. http://faculty.ccp.edu/faculty/dreed/Ca ... /index.htm
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Noisy Cricket
- Posts: 83
- Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2008 7:08 pm
- Location: Cleveland, Ohio
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Racin'Jacin
- Posts: 354
- Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 11:01 pm
Brake Bleeding
Firstly let me mention that I've mentioned this "tip" on other forums and have been told I'm a clueless idiot (amoung other things) so before you find yourself thinking the SAME THING - humor me just for a moment.
Keep in mind I do own a sweet pressure bleeder, but sometimes I find myself too lazy to drag it out so what's a SUPER LAZY FELLA to do?? Well here's what I did when I converted my old Rambler to disc brakes. First off I had to modify the NEW M/C to be compatible with a brake pressure switch. Nothing a little quality time on the bridgeport couldn't remedy. But the "issue" came into play as my excitement to have finally gotten around to this conversion let me get the M/C all mounted up before I realized I forgot to bench bleed it ;-( No worries I thought I'd use the Pressure Bleeder - then of course my laziness kicked in and I decided to forgo common sense and simply get to business.
So what I did was to get some CLEAR tubing (like what was shown in the previous link) crack the bleeder, install thetubing and ran the other end into a clear container already full of fluid. Next just cycle the pedal - contrary to popular belief it WILL bleed the system - and if for some reason it does not - you can instantly see it isn't working - use your fingers and "pinch" the line preventing back flow . Don't get all hung up on the ever popular comment of "it'll SUCK air back in" and never work. Sure it may cycle the fluid back and forth a tad but it WILL definitely push MORE out than it sucks back. Ultimately bleeding your system. AS you get to the point of no bubbles - you may want to go back and "conventionally" bleed them - for peace of mind.
I've done this on several cars and never had a problem. You may find going slower or faster (cycling the pedal) helps it work better. It does TAKE longer when the m/c is dry, so I do like to bench bleed it, but it's not a big deal if you forget.
Am I suggesting this is BETTER than power bleeding - No Way!, but sometimes if you're lazy like me or are in a hurry and don't have time or room to make a m/c adapter this will get the job doen without risking divorce.
Racin'Jacin
Keep in mind I do own a sweet pressure bleeder, but sometimes I find myself too lazy to drag it out so what's a SUPER LAZY FELLA to do?? Well here's what I did when I converted my old Rambler to disc brakes. First off I had to modify the NEW M/C to be compatible with a brake pressure switch. Nothing a little quality time on the bridgeport couldn't remedy. But the "issue" came into play as my excitement to have finally gotten around to this conversion let me get the M/C all mounted up before I realized I forgot to bench bleed it ;-( No worries I thought I'd use the Pressure Bleeder - then of course my laziness kicked in and I decided to forgo common sense and simply get to business.
So what I did was to get some CLEAR tubing (like what was shown in the previous link) crack the bleeder, install thetubing and ran the other end into a clear container already full of fluid. Next just cycle the pedal - contrary to popular belief it WILL bleed the system - and if for some reason it does not - you can instantly see it isn't working - use your fingers and "pinch" the line preventing back flow . Don't get all hung up on the ever popular comment of "it'll SUCK air back in" and never work. Sure it may cycle the fluid back and forth a tad but it WILL definitely push MORE out than it sucks back. Ultimately bleeding your system. AS you get to the point of no bubbles - you may want to go back and "conventionally" bleed them - for peace of mind.
I've done this on several cars and never had a problem. You may find going slower or faster (cycling the pedal) helps it work better. It does TAKE longer when the m/c is dry, so I do like to bench bleed it, but it's not a big deal if you forget.
Am I suggesting this is BETTER than power bleeding - No Way!, but sometimes if you're lazy like me or are in a hurry and don't have time or room to make a m/c adapter this will get the job doen without risking divorce.
Racin'Jacin
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Noisy Cricket
- Posts: 83
- Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2008 7:08 pm
- Location: Cleveland, Ohio
I usually just use the tubing method, myself. I had to when I installed the hydraulic handbrake in my rallycross car. (Like everyone said, it was a complete pain to do)
The cup seals ARE meant to mainly seal in one direction, after all. If you let the pedal swing up quickly, it draws fresh fluid past the seal instead of pulling air into the system.
And if you think about it, if the seals in the master didn't work like that, you'd never be able to pump up the brakes after you compress the calipers to install new pads... or boil the fluid and have to give 'em a couple stomps before the brakes actually do something.
To increase the chances of success, put a good amount of pipe thread goop on the bleeder threads. At work, we flush brake systems out with a vacuum bleeder, works really well except for when the vacuum preferentially pulls air past the bleeder screw threads instead of pulling fluid through the system. (It also works awesome for getting all of the coolant out of an engine block after removing the cylinder heads)
The cup seals ARE meant to mainly seal in one direction, after all. If you let the pedal swing up quickly, it draws fresh fluid past the seal instead of pulling air into the system.
And if you think about it, if the seals in the master didn't work like that, you'd never be able to pump up the brakes after you compress the calipers to install new pads... or boil the fluid and have to give 'em a couple stomps before the brakes actually do something.
To increase the chances of success, put a good amount of pipe thread goop on the bleeder threads. At work, we flush brake systems out with a vacuum bleeder, works really well except for when the vacuum preferentially pulls air past the bleeder screw threads instead of pulling fluid through the system. (It also works awesome for getting all of the coolant out of an engine block after removing the cylinder heads)
NoistCricket wrote:
Well that made my ears perk up. Gear Lube in a Hydraulic system? Could you elaborate on that. Of course though I'll never do that in my o2a transmission, since the hydro clutch shares the same resevoir w/ the brakes. But I'm curious, never heard that before.It's the ONLY way to bleed the clutch, after you flush out the DOT-3 in favor of 80W90.
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Noisy Cricket
- Posts: 83
- Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2008 7:08 pm
- Location: Cleveland, Ohio
A friend of mine told me about that.
Seems a friend of his local to him in Southern California had a clutch master cylinder start to bypass. So, being resourceful, he drained out the brake fluid and installed gear oil. I think he was hoping that it would swell the seals, or maybe would just be too viscous to bleed past the seals. At any rate, it lasted until he sold the truck.
Fast forward to 2004 or 2005 or so. It's 5:30 on a Friday and I'm leaving work, going to go to Norwalk. Remember Norwalk before they were called Summit, and had test and tunes every Friday? Anyway. Clutch pedal goes "thunk". Ut-oh. Remembering what my friend in Southern California told me, I used a vacuum bleeder to get the brake fluid out and poured in some gear oil.
Air bubbles stay in gear oil for MINUTES, it does. Need to pour down a screwdriver to prevent foaming. Bleeding is similarly awful, if there is any air at all in the system, the oil turns to foam.
A couple minutes with a drill and a tire valve, and I made a pressure bleeder. A couple more minutes, and I had air-free clutch hydraulics.
True to form, the clutch hydraulics lasted another, oh, 40,000 miles before they started bypassing again. I replaced everything with good used and reverted to brake fluid like you're supposed to.
Why brake fluid this time around? Well, it doesn't get down to freezing in Southern California. Picture jumping into the car during the first cold snap of the season, pushing down on the clutch pedal to get the car into reverse, and it's solid like the brake pedal. Slo-o-o-wly it oozes down. Let off - pedal suck down. Takes a good three seconds to come back up. Oh, my, this is odd to drive. Makes the clutch restrictors in Subarus and F-bodies feel positively natural in comparison. The kicker, though, is that while engine bay heat does bring the hydraulics back to normal working order, there's enough airflow on the highway that it will cool them back down. Living right by the on-ramp like I did, I didn't have normal feeling clutch action until I was ready to pull into the driveway at work.
But in a pinch, it got me to Norwalk.
Seems a friend of his local to him in Southern California had a clutch master cylinder start to bypass. So, being resourceful, he drained out the brake fluid and installed gear oil. I think he was hoping that it would swell the seals, or maybe would just be too viscous to bleed past the seals. At any rate, it lasted until he sold the truck.
Fast forward to 2004 or 2005 or so. It's 5:30 on a Friday and I'm leaving work, going to go to Norwalk. Remember Norwalk before they were called Summit, and had test and tunes every Friday? Anyway. Clutch pedal goes "thunk". Ut-oh. Remembering what my friend in Southern California told me, I used a vacuum bleeder to get the brake fluid out and poured in some gear oil.
Air bubbles stay in gear oil for MINUTES, it does. Need to pour down a screwdriver to prevent foaming. Bleeding is similarly awful, if there is any air at all in the system, the oil turns to foam.
A couple minutes with a drill and a tire valve, and I made a pressure bleeder. A couple more minutes, and I had air-free clutch hydraulics.
True to form, the clutch hydraulics lasted another, oh, 40,000 miles before they started bypassing again. I replaced everything with good used and reverted to brake fluid like you're supposed to.
Why brake fluid this time around? Well, it doesn't get down to freezing in Southern California. Picture jumping into the car during the first cold snap of the season, pushing down on the clutch pedal to get the car into reverse, and it's solid like the brake pedal. Slo-o-o-wly it oozes down. Let off - pedal suck down. Takes a good three seconds to come back up. Oh, my, this is odd to drive. Makes the clutch restrictors in Subarus and F-bodies feel positively natural in comparison. The kicker, though, is that while engine bay heat does bring the hydraulics back to normal working order, there's enough airflow on the highway that it will cool them back down. Living right by the on-ramp like I did, I didn't have normal feeling clutch action until I was ready to pull into the driveway at work.
But in a pinch, it got me to Norwalk.