My 74 w/HB has been sitting too long. I'm getting it prepped for some miles this year. My brakes are ok, no problems. Since water builds up in brake fluid, should I pay extra to have them pressure bleed?

I will soon be replacing the stk whimp spring w/330 VB&P. That should help me put 280/315 rwhp/rwtq to the road.


TIA

R

 

Tai, I would say yes if the car has been sitting along time. You may not have a problem now but once you use them and they get hot they may fail. Better to be safe than sorry, just my 2 cents.

sgm

 

I dont think you need to have them pressure bled. If you have time, and the room, you can use the gravity bleed method to drain the old fluid and keep adding or topping off with new fluid.

I used a clear plastic water bottle, cut a hole in the cap to insert a rubber line, windshield wiper hose works well, and then punched a small vent hole in the cap next to that.

Add some fluid in the bottle, about 1 inch will do, so that you can see if you have bubbles/air coming out, and to prevent any type of suckback if or when you press on the brakes.

Connect the hose to a bleeder screw, and then open the screw. The flow of the brake fluid will be slow, and a few gentle pumps on the brake pedal may help the movement. You should see brake fluid beginning to fill the bottle, over time.

WARNING. You should also take off your master cylinder cap and continue to monitor your brake fluid to insure you do not run out in the reservoirs. If you do then you have to take off your master cylinder and bench bleed it.

Repeat this process at all four corners until you see clean fluid coming out.

The benefit of doing this long, slow process is that you can multi task and get other parts of the car done at the same time.

Or you can take it to a shop to pressure bleed and have it done in about 1 hour. It depends on how much time you want to spend on this.

kdf

 

Just remove the wheels and pump them through till you see clear new fluid out of each.

 

How did you get water into a closed system when the car was just sitting?

 

Tia I think you refer to a BG machine or equivalent ..I have the BG machine..have not used it on a corvette yet..so I can't say it will work as good or better than pump or gravity bleed..I think its up to you..do you want and can do it yourself..or do you want it done.

 

Sly: I have heard for many years about water in old brake fluid.
It seemed to be a better safe than sorry kind of thing. Not to mention the air that gets into the system from the calipers over time.
I plan on putting in some miles and am trying to be smart about it.

BTW: Do 18" rear wheels need a 1" shorter spring?