Vette Dog

Hi Everyone,

I had to take my calipers off my 2001 to the get them powder coated which means all of my lines were disconnected for a week or so. All the fluid drained out from each line as far as I know which means my master cylinder was empty for that same amount of time.

My question is do I need to bleed the master cylinder before I bleed the calipers?

thanks!!

TEXHAWK0

I think I would bleed the master cylinder first. I have always heard that if you do not get all the air out of the master cylinder, you will never be able to bleed the whole system.
If you do not want to take it off to bench bleed it, you may be able to just burp the air out of each port, and then proceed with bleeding each caliper.
Did you have the cap off the master cylinder reservoir while the calipers were off? We have painted dozens of set of calipers, and have never had more than a few drops of brake fluid drip from the brake lines.

Vette Dog

yes the cap was off....I had them powder coated, plus I did suspension mods so I didnt put the calipers back on until those mods were done. I was told I could gravity bleed them for a while and that would work too....

wcsinx

You don't need to pull the MC out to bleed it. Just pull off the hardlines, hook up the bleeders, and work the pedal all the way down and up SLOWLY while someone keeps the reservoirs topped off.

Now the bleeders are just plastic fittings with a length of tube that runs back to the reservoir. You can get away with not using them and just "burping" the ports as you put it, but it's messy and you'll waste a lot of fluid. (And I personally get a warm fuzzy when I stop seeing those tiny little bubbles in the bleed lines. )

Vette Dog

thanks I will get a MC bleeder and try it in the car first. i appreciate the help!!!

TEXHAWK0

When I tried to bench bleed my new master cylinder, I could not find any good fittings that would not leak to bleed it back to the reservoir, so I just held my fingers over the ports and pushed the plunger. It would almost bleed it self by gravity faster than I could fill the reservoir until I put the cap on. Then the brake fluid quit running through the cylinder.
I put it back on the car, cracked the main brake line fittings one at a time to get the air out of the ports, and then bled the calipers.
Never had any more problems.

The only reason I mentioned taking it off the car was to reduce the chance of getting brake fluid sprayed somewhere you do not want it.

Vette Dog

Nope that makes sense to me, definitely would not want fluid on the new paint...great info thanks!!!

cagotzmann

Or to make things easier try this. I am not sure if the C5 MC has a similar set (bleed holes in the MC) but may be worth a try to look and see. From what I see the ports to the reservoir are before the ports to the brake lines so this should

also work for the C5.

First fill the system with brake fluid. Enough to get fluid out from each bleeder at the calipers. You could allow gravity bleed or I usually use air pressure at the Master Cylinder. This is what it looks like for my C3.

I made a similar device for my C6 using a cap with a air line adapter added to allow me to connect the air line.



Then "Here is the important step" to bleed the MC while on the car.

1. You don't need to remove any brake lines.
2. Once the MC is clear from air, then you proceed to bleed the calipers.

Follow this procedure.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-cylinder.html