[TR] Brake Bleeding Process

[pethier at comcast.net]

----- "David Brister" <david.brister at wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> SWAMBO 

I thought this was "SWMBO".  What's the "A" for, "always"?

> some years ago I tried a single handed attempt
> with a 
> Gunsons Easy Bleed kit. Ended up with fluif all over the rear end of
> the 
> engine bay! Can this Easy Bleed kit be made to work?

Yes.  Two important rules:
1. Use very little pressure.  This method will work with 1 or 2 PSI. So bleed the spare tire way down before you start.
2  Be sure to test the system at pressure before you put any fluid in the bottle.  If there is any doubt at all about the sealing you are getting at the reservoir cap, don't put fluid in the bottle.  This method actually works fine just on the fluid in the reservoir, so you don't need to put fluid in the bottle.  The only problem then is that you mus stop and top of the reservoir more often.

These extra steps are well-worth the time.  I could NEVER get a hard pedal in my Europa using conventional pedal bleeding.  The idea is that there were too many high spots in the system.  One stroke of the pedal was not enough to get a bubble from a high spot past the next low spot, so the bubble would just migrate back to the high spot between strokes.  Pressure bleeding with the Gunson would move these bubble all the way out in one shot.

Another advantage of this method is that I have never needed to bench-bleed a master cylinder.  Filling the system with the Gunson has always been enough to get all the air out.

Lastly, when you use a Gunson, you don't need to put any foreign stuff on the bleeder threads.



Phil Ethier West Side Saint Paul Minnesota USA
1962 Triumph TR4 CT2846L   1979 Caterham 7
1993 Suburban  1994 Miata C-package  2007 Saturn Ion 3 2.4
pethier [at] comcast [dot] net   
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