Lower pressure avoids making small bubbles out of big bubbles.

 

Once you get over 10 lbs., you had better be dang sure that top is C clamped on real tight. Just sayin'

 

LOL.....very true!

 

Guess you had lakes of brake fluid under your car too

 

good judgment comes from experience

experience comes from poor decisions


gravity drain and pump,pump bleed work

technology saves time and effort, have spent as little as 30 minutes bleeding brakes and as long as 20 hrs.


good luck..gotta consider what is your time worth

 

Nope....had a MC cap spray zone though!

 

I called Wilwood, they told me the gravity bleed isn't adequate and to use the old fashion pump method, and to re-bench bleed the master. I re-bench bled the master. I plugged both outlets on the master to verify the master was good, it was. I left the front outlet plugged and started on the rear passenger inboard brake bleed valve, then the outer and tapping the caliper with a rubber mallet to shake loose any air bubbles. I didn't have a helper, so I used the 3/4" PVC pipe method, which worked great. Got the rear brakes bled. I used the same method for the front and got them bled. Before starting the car, I pumped the pedal and it was very firm, like I would expect. When I started the car the pedal would get very firm at about half way to the floor. I checked the brakes with my PVC pipe and my rotors wouldn't turn. When I removed the PVC pipe, the rotors would spin again. Now my question is, why is the brake pedal firmer with the car off?

 

Power brakes will make it seem harder when the car is not running. I remember this from my 1972 El Camino and 2 1976 Chevelle. The brakes will always be harder to push when the engine is not creating vacuum to assist the power brake systems of older cars.

Try stopping the car without the power brakes now that is a chore as I remember one day when the rotor in the distributor cap exploded on my 1972 El Camino at 70 MPH on the HWY. The engine stalled at 70 MPH and this car was a chore to stop and get off to the shoulder without power steering and power brakes. Once I got it over to the shoulder I had to stand on the brake pedel with both feet to get it stop. Yup still remember that day

 

Has anyone had success with vacuum bleeding? I've tried this years ago, could never get a good pedal, had to send the car to the Corvette shop. They replaced the master cylinder. This leaves me uncertain whether the vacuum bleeding may have otherwise worked.

I have wondered if vacuum bleeding may potentially pull air in past the seals on the calipers, stock seals. I've been considering the Motive power bleeder as an alternative.

 

Vacuum bleeding tends to pull air in through the threads on the bleeder screws. That makes it hard to tell when the air is out of the lines and calipers.

 

Not sure how well this is going to work or how much pressure I can build with this but I'm gonna give it a try today.

 

An outfit named Phoenix, or something like that, made/makes a pump that you use to pump the fluid in from the calipers, through the lines and into the master. They claimed that it pumped the trapped air to the master, where it would rise through the fluid and escape. I used one of these things a couple of times on several older cars I had, but couldn't use it after all my cars had ABS braking systems.

 

another lets say redneck idea from a certified rolls and Ferrari mechanic .
the caliper does not have to be mounted it can be maneuvered up,down,sideways any way to achieve releasing the air from cavities just install a piece of wood or anything between the pads to simulate the rotor

 

Speed bleeder and go around the car about 3 times one wheel at a time. I start at the rear right and work round to front right.

 

3/4 Success. I've bled with my MyT-Vac and get good results all around except the left front. For reasons of its own, my left front does not like my MyT-Vac.

 

Hey leadfoot4, thanks for the idea!!! I tried using my makeshift pressure bleeder....with obvious fail written all over it.

So I tried something a little stronger but the same basic concept:

It's a garden sprayer (its a Chapin #27010) with a 1/4" OD hose attached to the spray nozzle port since it it the same diameter using the bleeder fitting from my mityvac.

I tried pumping from the master cylinder but that just cause a mess because the cap I had was a vented cap....(thought that was kinda weird)

So then I thought about this thread and though "why not pump up from the calipers?

(keep in mind this is a completely dry system so gravity bleeding or pretty much anything else wasn't working)

So to start, I disconnected the rear "mc to proportioning valve" line, connected a hose and put it in a bottle so I didn't make any more mess. I connected the line to the outer caliper bleeder (rears) and hooked a small hose to the inside bleeder and just had that one go into a plastic bottle to catch the overflow fluid. Once it was clear fluid, I closed the inside then the outside. Did this to the driver rear, then moved to the passenger rear and did the same except after I closed the inside bleeder, I pumped a few more times to build more pressure and went to keep an eye on the bottle at the mc. While waiting, I connected my mityvac to the rear port on the mc to prime it. As soon as it was a clean/clear flow into the bottle, grab a shop towel and connect it to the mc. Then a normal bleed and you're done with the rears. The fronts were no problem, so i just bled them normally.

Put my manual power bleeder together for the totally high price of $9.95 (sprayer) at sears, a couple bucks at lowes (hose), and the $20-ish for the mityvac (which is not really needed, just makes it easier).