Best approach to bleeding brakes - Part 2

joyridin' · #1 (**permalink**) 08-12-2013, 12:45 PM

I have bled brakes thousands of times and rarely if ever have I seen gravity bleeding that didn't have the air bubbles you are experiencing. There is not pressure on the brake hose from the bleeder to your can, so the air bubbles are walking themselves up the hose.

Did you pump up the pedal before you started to bleed? If not, that is the gap you are seeing between the pad and rotor. Even if you gravity bleed, you still need to pump up the brakes a bit. Bleed some, then pump them up again.

I use the stick method. Grab a broomstick and wrap a lot of tape around the end. Get int he car and pump the pedal. While holding the pedal down, put the stick between the pedal and the seat. Get out, open bleeder. That was before I bought the Speed Bleeders...but it still didn't take me 5 hours.

DanEC · #2 (**permalink**) 08-12-2013, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joyridin'

That was before I bought the Speed Bleeders...but it still didn't take me 5 hours.

Hell, I've been building this thing for 3-1/2 years. What would make you think it would take me any less time?

patrickt · #3 (**permalink**) 08-12-2013, 06:27 PM

Man, I'm going to be really surprised if it's sucking that much air past the threads on the bleeder screw on a freshly rebuilt caliper, but what-the-hay.... If Teflon tape doesn't fix it, then I say the caliper had a POS-rebuild job done on it, or maybe you're pulling air in the master cylinder because you're pumping too hard, with too long a stroke, and pumping too quickly.

joyridin' · #4 (**permalink**) 08-12-2013, 06:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanEC

Hell, I've been building this thing for 3-1/2 years. What would make you think it would take me any less time?

That is pretty good. My car has been on jack stands for over 3 years just to rebuild the Jag rear and upgrade the brake system.

Took me about an hour to bleed the system by myself.

patrickt · #5 (**permalink**) 08-12-2013, 06:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joyridin'

That is pretty good. My car has been on jack stands for over 3 years just to rebuild the Jag rear...

Uhhh, you know you could just ship that bad boy off to Michigan Driveline and have it back in about a week, good as new....

joyridin' · #6 (**permalink**) 08-13-2013, 06:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patrickt

Uhhh, you know you could just ship that bad boy off to Michigan Driveline and have it back in about a week, good as new....

I had the rear rebuilt last year. That wasn't too bad. It was upgrading the brakes that took so long. Seems like every little thing that would take 2 hours took 2 months. Still waiting on the caliper mounting brackets to be welded and drilled. They were supposed to be done a month ago. Everything else is finally ready to go.

Oh well...at least it will all be right.

DanEC · #7 (**permalink**) 08-17-2013, 06:44 PM

Well, I found speed bleeders at the local PepBoys so I picked some up and installed them today. Of course that didn't go uneventfuly as I had 3 calipers with 3/8 in bleeders and 1 - 5/16 bleeder requiring that I by 3 packs of 2 each. I didn't loose much fluid switching out the front ones but on the rear Girlings it made a pretty good mess. I also jacked the front of the car up pretty high and tapped on the master cylinders with a wooden handle to move any air out of them. I have a pedal now, although as Kevin2 experienced, it seems a little soft still. It may just take some time to get used to it.

Thanks for the help.

Dan