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Brake bleeding is a controversial topic around these parts. You can't go wrong with the friend pumping the brakes method, but that process can be slow and annoying. From what I've found, there are two different ways to bleed the brakes without an assistant:
1. Apply pressure at the top of the reservoir and force the fluid through the system. The problem with this approach for our cars is sealing the irregular shape at the top of the reservoir, without applying too much force to break the plastic. This is probably a better approach for more modern reservoirs with screw on caps.
2. Apply a vacuum to the bleeder and suck the fluid through the system. The only real downside to this approach for our cars I've found is the potential to run the reservoir dry, so I decided to go this route and make sure I didn't pull too much fluid at one time.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/jdw-jdi-050ev
I picked up the JDI-050EV from Summit, and they shipped it in a giant loose box with two front rotors and it survived, so it's plenty tough. Assembly is minimal, it comes with an adapter that says 20PM on it, which didn't fit in my 1/4 harbor freight adapter setup. It seems like the harbor freight stuff has a slightly different thread pitch and it didn't want to thread in nicely to the exchanger, so I did the right thing by wrapping it in teflon tape and threading it in anyway. If it is leaking, it's not a lot. Other than that, the unit is ready to go out of the box.
I set my heavily abused harbor freight pancake compressor to 55ish psi which did the job just fine. It ran low on air after 20-30 seconds, but I was checking the reservoir at the same interval so it was perfectly adequate for this job.
For my PBR rear brakes, I found it hard to get the suction nozzle on the short bleeder correctly with a wrench behind it. If you have trouble making a seal, it'll look like air bubbles getting sucked in with the fluid. Cracking the bleeder and leaving the wrench off for suction solved that problem for me.
Overall I had no problem pulling fluid until it ran clear, and the pedal felt better afterwards so I'd call this product a total win for the occasional brake job.
There is a third and incredibly easy way to bleed your brakes without assistant.
1. Attach a clear hose to the brake bleeder at the cylinder/caliper. Make sure it fits tightly to keep the fluid from leaking (or letting air in).
2. Route the clear hose up above the bleeder screw a few inches, then down to a container for old fluid. The purpose for this is to cause the brake fluid to rise above the bleeder through the clear tube, then down to your catch container.
3. Crack your bleeder screw just enough to allow fluid to slowly bleed into the clear tube. Dont open it too far or air might enter through the bleeder threads.
4. Allow gravity to cause the lines and fluid to bleed the system itself. You can speed it up by pumping the brake pedal, and even doing all 4 lines at the same time (check the reservoir frequently because this bleeds a LOT of fluid fast). The weight of the fluid in the system will push the fluid out as you monitor the reservoir level under the hood. Air in the system will bleed out and air bubbles will rise up in the clear tubing while the heavier fluid stays below the air (since tubing is routed ABOVE the bleeder). The system will bleed itself and naturally burp the air out.
I just use a MityVac hand held pump and ensure the reservoir stays full.
Also, before starting, I use said mityvac to suck most the fluid in the reservoir out and replace it with clean fluid. That way I'm not pulling old, dirty reservoir fluid through the brake lines, but new clean stuff.
Also, just as a matter of principle, I fill it with Castrol SRF. Best brake fluid I've ever used.
I just use a MityVac hand held pump and ensure the reservoir stays full.
Also, before starting, I use said mityvac to suck most the fluid in the reservoir out and replace it with clean fluid. That way I'm not pulling old, dirty reservoir fluid through the brake lines, but new clean stuff.
Also, just as a matter of principle, I fill it with Castrol SRF. Best brake fluid I've ever used.
I do the same, except I use a $1 store turkey baster to suck the old fluid form the reservoir. Have a different one for power steering fluid too. Far from a full flush, but better than a kick in the teeth. Also, with the small size of the hand-held reservoir on the MityVac pump, there's no chance of running the master cylinder reservoir dry, if you top it off each time you empty the MityVac.
Its just a reservoir though. Even if you empty it, as long as you don't actuate the brakes its not going to pull any air into the system. So you can drain it, and fill it with new fluid without issue.
Its just a reservoir though. Even if you empty it, as long as you don't actuate the brakes its not going to pull any air into the system. So you can drain it, and fill it with new fluid without issue.
Agreed. I do it every time. No need to leave old fluid in there and push/pull it through the system, especially when it's that easy to remove.
08-29-2021, 06:09 PM
