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Bleeding Brakes
irvined - 8/4/05 at 08:30 AM

Hello,

Its going to be brake bleeding time soon - is there a sensible order in which to do it?

How hard should the pedal be?

Is it worth making the corner im working on as high as possible?

Cheers.


David


mookaloid - 8/4/05 at 10:24 AM

Does your car have disk brakes at the rear? On the Indy it is neccessary to unbolt them and hold them upside down whilst bleeding to get all the air out.

Pedal should be really hard when finished

Cheers

Mark



[Edited on 8/4/05 by mookaloid]


Snuggs - 8/4/05 at 11:02 AM

Many cars use the rear calipers upside down.
Buy a power bleeder and the job is dead easy.

Clive


flak monkey - 8/4/05 at 11:14 AM

As Snuggs says... Buy something like Ezibleed from your local motor factors.

You just hook one end up to a spare tyre and the other to your fluid resevoir. It makes the job a doddle to do on your own! And they arent that expensive.

David


DavidM - 8/4/05 at 11:46 AM

The general rule is to bleed the one closest to the master cylinder first, then work your way around finishing with the one furthest away.

David


tom_loughlin - 8/4/05 at 01:35 PM

its a bugger of a job - me and a mate sruggled all day to sort it, then the damn fluid ran out, so had to start over.

thik ill invest in some sort of bleeding set - as i never fancy doing it again.
Tom


mookaloid - 8/4/05 at 03:13 PM

Hi Clive,

How does a power bleeder make any difference if the caliper is fitted upside down?

Cheers

Mark


JoelP - 8/4/05 at 05:45 PM

i used eazibleed, so easy - i did it alone first time, never having done anything to brakes previously.

worth mentioning that the tyre you use to pressurise the system, should be dropped to 20psi first.


irvined - 8/4/05 at 06:38 PM

Thanks for the advice, I like the sound of the eezibleed, bleeding brakes have plagued me in the past.

Cheers


David


DrEagle - 12/4/05 at 09:02 PM

Just bought the kit, done the breaks quick as a flash, now i have too much fluid on the master cyl pot! ?????


flak monkey - 12/4/05 at 09:06 PM

Yes, you will end up with a completly full resevoir. You need to suck (not with your mouth!) some of it out carefully. A largish (25ml) syringe works well if you can get one.

David

[Edited on 12/4/05 by flak monkey]


britishtrident - 13/4/05 at 12:07 PM

Bleeding brakes is the easiest job in the build but for many builders it seems to cause panic --- with a normal Ford Girling based brake systems pressure or vacumn bleeders only make more work -- ideed vacumn bleeders can draw more into the system.
With Teves master cylinders a pressure bleeder that presurises the master cylinder resevoir can be useful because Teves cylinders tend to draw in air on the return stroke.


(1) Prime the master cylinder before you start - slacken the unions on the master cylinder cover them with a rag (to catch fluid spray) fill with fluid and get an assistant to press the pedal down slowly and hold it down while you retighten the unions.
(2) With a front/rear split system bleed one circuit first -- usually the rear.
Top up the master cylinder open the nipple about 3/4 (or less) of turn fit the bleed tube and get your assistant to pump the pedal slowy down and very s-l-o-w-l-y up. give it 4 or 5 strokes then hold the pedal down on the last tighten the nipple and top up with fluid.
before moving on to the next cylinder
(3) Again follow step (2) for the front circuit
(4) Repeat steps (2) & (3)
(5) Test for a solid pedal if not firm check for leaks.


gazza285 - 13/4/05 at 01:08 PM

If you have an assistant do as British Trident says but nip the bleed nipple for the up stroke, no need to do it slowly then.


irvined - 14/4/05 at 08:22 AM

Hello,

So i started bleeding the brakes the other night, got myself and eezibleed (Well worth the tenner.)

So, despite a few minor setbacks, it stops.

Setback #1, i stripped the thread from the bleeds screw, fortunately i had a spare.

Setback #2 It took ages to get a solid pedal, and in fact, im still not convinced, but the brakes certainly work.

The ns rear slave cyl appears siezed, but not a major issue as i plan on replacing both of them before SVA.

So, i had my first trip out in the car to the road end and back last nigth, was excellent motivation.

Anyway, i get about 1-2"pedal movement ebfore it starts to get hard. I can't press it all the way to the floor, but it does move quite a bit. I've got a lot of leverage on the pedal, so its hard to say how hard the brakes are, does this sound about right?

Cheers

David


britishtrident - 14/4/05 at 09:29 AM

quote:
Originally posted by mookaloid
Hi Clive,

How does a power bleeder make any difference if the caliper is fitted upside down?

Cheers

Mark


nope but if you pull out the pads and pump the caliper pistons out to about 60% travel then push it back home it will usuall clear air trapped in the caliper.


britishtrident - 14/4/05 at 09:30 AM

quote:
Originally posted by mookaloid
Hi Clive,

How does a power bleeder make any difference if the caliper is fitted upside down?

Cheers

Mark


locoboy - 14/4/05 at 12:10 PM

quote:
Originally posted by gazza285
If you have an assistant do as British Trident says but nip the bleed nipple for the up stroke, no need to do it slowly then.



Agreed,

I have lost count of the number of neighbours, aunts, uncles, sisters, etc etc that have been sat in the car listening to me giving it

up.......

down.....

up.....

down....

definately nip it up on the up stroke (oooh er!)