Brake bleeding..., sucks (pun woefully intended) Options

[stateofidleness]

at my wit's end with brake bleeding (who else says "blake breeding" on accident?... ok just me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)) anyways...

tried the old fashioned "get a buddy" method... this helped me find all my leaks... fun.. so after replacing all the lines, the master cylinder and a rear caliper, we tried again (3 weekends into this so far... ) Builds a little pressure, go to next wheel.. try again.. no change, but good flow..

after doing all 4 corners and getting good flow with no air at each one, STILL pedal almost goes all the way to the floor with little pressure...

finally got to that point where you don't mind spending money to make the process easier, so i went to FLAPS and got the MityVac thing... $40 later i get home and go back to work... got the process down and got good flow at each tire again, reservoir staying full throughout... STILL sh*tty pedal feel... so at the time of this writing.. i quit!

[stateofidleness]

oh, i was following the pelican article:

"If your rear caliper has two bleed nipples (some have one, others have two), bleed the lower one first."

i haven't even touched the top ones yet. do I need to do both on each caliper??

[pcar916]

oh, i was following the pelican article:

"If your rear caliper has two bleed nipples (some have one, others have two), bleed the lower one first."

i haven't even touched the top ones yet. do I need to do both on each caliper??

1. Bleed nipples are always on top. Air bubbles rise. A lower nipple is used to remove old fluid when you are pushing the pistons back into their bores during a pad replacement to keep from pushing fluid back to the MC. But there may be two bleeder nipples on the inside and outside, and at the TOP of the caliper. Bleed the inside first and then the outside. If your only bleed nipple(s) are at the bottom then the calipers are on upside down... i.e. on the wrong side of the car.

Note: There is a school of thought that works, but is a bad idea and that's to pressure-bleed backward from the caliper to the MC. It would be fine on a completely new system. But crud and bad fluid would be sent back into the MC this way. A lower bleeder would work better in this method, but it's still a bad process.

2. Always bench-bleed the MC. That could well be be your problem all by itself. So much so that I'd remove it and do it even now.

3. Pressure bleeding is the bomb. Anything else is more work. Vacuum bleeding often doesn't move enough fluid at a rate fast enough to sweep the air out of nooks and crannies. The buddy method scrapes the MC cylinder bore far beyond it's normal range and possibly into corroded bore. Doesn't matter with a new MC but can kill rubber seals on an old one.



Good luck

[Garland]

1. Bleed nipples are always on top. Air bubbles rise. If your only bleed nipple(s) are at the bottom then the calipers are on upside down... i.e. on the wrong side of the car.
Good luck

”wrong side of the car” Great Point! Pcar916

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