Brake Bleeding
 

Can someone walk me through the process of bleeding my brakes? First time.I just replaced the line coming out of the back of the proportioning block. I believe it feeds the front. Do I need to bleed the back, too? Thanks.

Re: Brake Bleeding
 

It wouldn't hurt to bleed them all. The easiest way to do it is to get the bleeder at Autozone or some other parts store for $35.

If you don't want to spend the dough, get a big bottle of brake fluid, a hose, a jar, and a buddy.

Put a couple inches of fluid in the jar, one ind of the hose in the fluid, the other on the bleed valve of the passenger rear wheel. Open the vlave and have your buddy press and release the brake slow and steady a few times. If the fluid looks dark and cloudy, then you will want to top off the M/C and repeat until the fresh fluid reaches the jar. Open valve, pump 5 times, close valve, top off fluid.

Once the fluid looks good, pressurize the line. to do this, have your buddy pump the pedal 3 times, then hold it down. While he holds the pedal open and close the valve. The pedal will go to the floor when you open the valve, hold it to the floor until the valve is closed. Make sure you see no bubbles. If you do, repeate the pump and hold until you don't.

Repeat with the drivers rear, then the passenger front, then the driver front. Don't let the fluid level drop too much in the M/C and make sure there is fresh fluid in all the lines with no bubbles.

Hope that helps. It's easy once you've done it a few times.

Re: Brake Bleeding
 

Oops. I didn't mean to put this under suspesion.

Thanks for the detailed process, that's what i needed.

Re: Brake Bleeding
 

what's with the one man bleeders that i see advertised from time to time? do they work well?

Re: Brake Bleeding
 

Since you introduced air to the system, I would bleed the entire system.

Re: Brake Bleeding
 

A friend of mine has one and it seemed to work well. I was going to buy one when I'm all done with my power disc setup this week. If it sucks, I'll let you know (no pun intended).

Re: Brake Bleeding
 

They work great. Got one at auto zone that was a hand pump. You connect the clear tube to the bleeder screw, unscrew and pump a couple time. It creates a vacuum and draws the brake fluid from the master cylinder through the lines. There is a collection bottle connected to the other side of the hand pump where the fluid runs into. Just make sure the master cylinder never goes empty. I would have spent all day bleeding the old fashioned way after I replaced my front to rear brake line.

Re: Brake Bleeding
 

That was the setup my buddy had and that's the setup I'm buying. I think it was only like $35, so not a bad investment if you ask me.

Re: Brake Bleeding
 

i'm never doing it the old fashioned way again.

Re: Brake Bleeding
 

I fabbed up a shade tree pressure bleeding set-up that has worked great for me. I started with a 3x6x1/4" piece of steel plate, and an 1/8" piece of rubber the same 3x6" to use as a gasket.. Drilled a hole and threaded in a male air hose nipple into one end. I clamp this on top of the master cylinder with a C-clamp (with the lid off and the resevoir full of fluid) and hook up an air hose regulated down to about 5-10 PSI. Put a hose onto the bleeder and crack it open until clear, fresh fluid comes out. Remove the air hose and clamped on plate, top off with fluid and repeat on next corner of vehicle. Works like a champ and can do it by yourself.
Brett

Re: Brake Bleeding
 

Thanks for all the help. Autozone will loan you one of their pressure bleeders, so I went that route. Worked pretty well once I figured out how to use it. Still had to use the old fasioned was a little bit, but it's stopping good now.

Now if only I had a booster...I guess that's next.