REFLECTOR: Bleeding brakes

[Jim Sower]

My bleeder nipple is on the bottom of the caliper so I have to bleed by 
back flushing the system.  Tried lots and LOTS of stuff (notably oil 
squirt cans) but I couldn't get the bubbles out of the high point loop.  
The one day in the Lowe's garden shop I found a plant food / weed killer 
spray applicator - a 1.5 gallon jug, with a pump to pressurize it and a 
hose with shutoff valve.  Adapted the hose down to fit the bleeder 
nipple and let 'er rip (with a friend pulling excess fluid out of the 
brake reservoir with a turkey baster) and bled it out better than it's 
ever been.
All for under ten bucks ... Jim S.

Al Gietzen wrote:

> I used my home-made "pressure bleeder" today to fill the brake fluid.  
> Put the fluid in from the caliper at the wheel until the master 
> cylinder reservoir was about ¾ full.  Then raised the gear leg until 
> the wheel was nearly in the wheel well (to reduce the high point loop 
> in the line just inside the fuselage) and bled back thru the caliper 
> by pumping the pedal. Found no air coming back, and the pedal feels 
> quite solid.
>
>  
>
> I was looking at pressure bleeders, but $50 a shot - really!  I 
> thought about my oil squirt-can, but on testing, I found in 
> occasionally included some air.  So I devised a "squeeze bottle" 
> pressure bleeder (photo attached) by drilling a hole in the cap of a 
> plastic oil bottle (thoroughly cleaned, of course), and threaded in a 
> nyla-flow fitting. Then attached a few feet of nyla-flow with a short 
> length of vacuum hose to connect to bleed nipple.  The length of tube 
> was to be able to hold the bottle up for some gravity assist, but 
> having a friend squeeze the bottle speeded things up.  It took a 
> couple of times closing the bleeder, and loosening the cap on the 
> bottle to let some air back in; but it did the job.
>
>  
>
> FWIW.
>
>  
>
> BTW; remind me again why we use DOT 5 fluid.  Of course it says on the 
> main reservoir cap "Use DOT 3 only"
>
>  
>
> Al
>
>
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