Hub,

Went to bleed the front brakes (I've bleed brakes before), filled the resi with fluid, pumped the lever, and tried to bleed the master cylinder first - and nothing is happening. There is no resistance, after pumping the brake lever many, many times. There is no fluid coming out of the master cylinder bleed screw, so I'm wondering if I somehow missed a step somewhere - I have the shop manual and don't think I have, but how long shoudl I pull on the brake lever looking for things to get started?

Thanks,
Nils

Any bubbles coming from the master?Even a TINY stream?Pump the lever.Open the Master at the lever perch while holding the lever in.Repeat.If your reservoir is draining,it's purging the line(ever so SLLOOWWLLYY).Check your caliper bleed-pump and hold the lever.Open the lower valve(s).Any air?Keep on doing that until you get Nothing.Air gets trapped in the lever Master.I had to put the hose on that fitting,then suck the fluid up into the hose by mouth(I know,sounds F^&*(% up).But that's how I finally got it to start filling.(sorry,I'm not HUB!).Coolwhip posted about a brake line tool called a MiteyVac.Definitely gonna get one.

* Last updated by: blue07 on 6/25/2009 @ 10:44 PM *

Blue,

I'm not getting any bubbles of any kind, which was why I thought I was messing something up. The mityvac may be the best way to go at this point, but I should still be able to do this by hand. Sounds like there is some air caught up in the master cylinder which i haven't got to - even with using the MC bleed valve.

Short of the mityvac, sounds like I need to apply some mouth suction to get things started. Do you think my wife would be offended if I asked for her help??? (lol....j/k)

They're finicky alright!Are ya showing a drop in reservoir fluid while you're "pumping and bleeding"?You've got some air in there somewhere-just can take a bit to get it all out.If you can get your wife to pump the lever while ya bleed,that would be better.I had to do mine by myself.If you're getting ANY backpressure on the lever,it's beginning to be complete.Hope that helps!Probably air in the lever master.Do you have your bars set(turned)so the master is sitting "flat"with the floor?That will help.(the air should be able to travel "up" to the highest point[the bleed valve].The manual says to "tap" the master to get the air moving to the valve.

* Last updated by: blue07 on 6/26/2009 @ 8:14 AM *

Hub,

I'm with you, but what you explained it exactly what I did the first time through. Left side front caliper cracked open, and pumping the brake lever looking for fluid to come through - nothing. I did that for a good 15 min. with no results. That's why I went to the shop manual to see if there was something I was missing, and the manual said to bleed the MC before the calipers. At this point I don't care which is suppose to go first, I'm just trying to get some results.

Worth nothing - the MC is sitting flat with the floor, no movement with fluid seen. The only bubbles I've seen were a couple of bigger bubbles when I pinched the hose that connects the resi to the MC - but no small/tiny bubble usually associated with bleed brakes.

Hub - Im' going back to the process you explained, because that's how I usually do it. I also picked up the least expensive version of the Mityvac kit, and will use that tomorrow to see if it gives better results. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again for the direction!

Hub,

Thanks again for the advice, I got things sorted out.

The rear brake I had done in less than 10 min., but the rear was never the problem. I tried my old system again for the fronts with no luck, then broke out the mityvac to see if it would help. My inital attempt not only didn't work, but I ended up with a face full of brake fluid (lol...) as I had connected the mityvac tubes backwards, so the tube in the resevoir was going into the pump itself. This caused the fluid to come back through the pump and out the pressure tube....and into my face. Onec I got the tube issue resolved, I have to say I was very impressed with how well the mityvac worked. I felt like I went through a little more fluid than I usually do, but the time was less than half.

In the end - Hub - thanks for the great advice, you were on the mark as usual. Thumbs up to the mityvac, and a recommendation to anyone thinking of using/getting one.