Buzzardz_vette

I recently purchased a Motive to bleed the brakes on my 75. It is a project car that we are rebuilding. The calipers and the master cylinder are new, as well as, the brake fluid distributer. It does not have any fluid in the system. My question is, do I need to bench bleed the MC or will the Motive clear the air from the system? Thanks.

jnb5101

no need to bench bleed the m/c. just make sure that you have enough brake fluid in the pressure bottle. i used about a quart and half. the trick is to release the plastic plate from the top of the m/c at the same time you release pressure from the bottle, so that the fluid isn't sucked back into the bottle. get a big c-clamp and use a piece of 2x4 on top of the plastic plate to securely hold it in place. did two cars like this after replacing all lines and calipers and had a hard pedal in less than 30 minutes time, start to finish.

Mad Vette

Defiantly bench bleed the master cyl this will help. I have the Motive brake bleeder so do other forum members the problem that I had with it was that had to have the master cyl cover really tight for it to work. I am sure other will chime in with advice on how best to get it to work. But it was the only thing that got my brakes bled.

Ran-D

I've had nothing but problems with my Motive Bleeder. As mentioned everywhere, the chains are useless. I had my machinist at work make me an 1/8" thick aluminum cover plate, complete with groves for the chain notches, and still not a good seal. Maybe with several C clamps... that will be the next attempt. Did I mention that I have a slight air loss where the air gage is connected to the bottle. Hell, I could have built one myself for all the time and hassles from the Motive product. Great idea, bad manufacturing. What a pain.

chvet73

Mine leaked like crazy. So I put it away. Then I just got it out to try again a few weeks ago. Got it all hooked up and pumped it up. The clear hose split at two different points. What a mess. So now I'm working on a custom top using an original master cylinder cover. When I get around to trying it again I'll post pictures if it works.

CA-Legal-Vette

First, in answer to your question, I would bench bleed the MC first. Apparently the angle of the mounted MC traps bubbles that bleeding will not remove. That's why it is so important to bench bleed with the MC level.

Second, I got my Motive not too long ago and got lots of good advice on this post:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...507&highlight=

I used a piece of 2X4 about ten inches long on top of the cover and a large C-clamp. Sealed it up nicely.

Last, from the post above, i took the suggestion of using the power bleeder WITHOUT putting fluid in the pump. The down side is that you need to be careful to keep the reservoirs full. The upside is not a single drop of brake fluid went anywhere except through my lines. I would never use the Motive any other way.

Buzzardz_vette

Thanks everyone for the input. The consensus seems to be to bench bleed the MC and to use a 2x4 and C-clamps. I'll give it try.