So how are you supposed to put the lid on the front brake reservoir?

Wow folks some really good stuff in there (I might see if I can draw it together and draft a FAQ type thing). I think I need to go over my breaks from scratch again. Also do some learning about bleading\refreshing.

Thankyou again.

+1 for using a syringe. Tried it after Northwind suggested it and managed to bleed brakes OK at the first attempt and I'd never blead brakes beofre in my life.

How do you use the syringe?

Or would that be better put "how is the syringe used"?

[Viney]

Originally Posted by kcowgergmm

is there any good tool that can be used to aid in the process of changing brakefluid and bleeding the lines

Me!

one 8mm spanner, a length of plastic hose, a bottle or recepticle, and the correct technique.

I bled Grinchs new lines with less than 250ml fluid. No syringes, or mityvacs or anything like that.

Yep he did... And after that I did the same with my back brake. Just the only difference was that I took the brakes off to make it easier for me to get to the nipple and see the pistions move.

Originally Posted by Viney

Me!

one 8mm spanner, a length of plastic hose, a bottle or recepticle, and the correct technique.

I bled Grinchs new lines with less than 250ml fluid. No syringes, or mityvacs or anything like that.

That's how I was thinking of doing it - like I have done many times before with many cars. I was just wondering if there was anything particularly difficult about a bike's brake system? Like, for example, are the line bores bigger and hence letting air bubbles trickle back up the line?

Anyway, to the syringe users: where do you get the big ass syringes from? I assume that you need to fill the cylinder and line up to th reservoir in one injection?

Originally Posted by Viney

Me!

one 8mm spanner, a length of plastic hose, a bottle or recepticle, and the correct technique.

I bled Grinchs new lines with less than 250ml fluid. No syringes, or mityvacs or anything like that.

That's how I've always done it and how I do it. I want to know how to do that properly. My understanding is (if you have two people)...
* Slight pressure on brake lever
* Open bleed nipple (with tube attached taking old fluid off to recepticle)
* Brake lever is slowly squeezed
* As lever reaches end of travel bleed nipple is closed
* Repeat till fluid level in reservoir is at lower level
* Top up reservoir
* Repeat till new fluid is being bled
* Top reservoir up and job done
* (Might be some final bleed trickery people like to do?)

[Viney]

Originally Posted by 2mths

That's how I've always done it and how I do it. I want to know how to do that properly. My understanding is (if you have two people)...
* Slight pressure on brake lever
* Open bleed nipple (with tube attached taking old fluid off to recepticle)
* Brake lever is slowly squeezed
* As lever reaches end of travel bleed nipple is closed
* Repeat till fluid level in reservoir is at lower level
* Top up reservoir
* Repeat till new fluid is being bled
* Top reservoir up and job done
* (Might be some final bleed trickery people like to do?)

Almost the same as me, but i will leave the nipple open with the levr to the bar about a second (or counting to 2 in my head before closing the nipple then releasing the lever). If you use clear tubing, you can see that the fluid is still moving at that time. I also, when fitting new line, squeeze the lever and undo the banjos like the bleed nipples, to get flid down the lines at least.
I will also bleed the master cylinder in the same way genlte squeeze on lever, open and close the banjo. Job done.

The golden rule is, Never release the lever with ya nipples open! (fnarr fnarr)

I will admit though, it took me a long while to perfcet the technique and was condisering Mityvacs etc.

[northwind]

My syringe cost £2 and I can bleed a system from dry to fixed in about 5 minutes (took a bit longer to do Scooby Drew's as the nipples are a different size, pain in the bum that), so, I'll keep on doing that But I'd be the first to admit the reason I hate doing it the traditional way is that I suck at it. So to speak.

[northwind]

Originally Posted by 2mths

Or would that be better put "how is the syringe used"?

I keep meaning to do a video. Might do next time, I want to do the fronts soon. Dead simple though... You just need your syringe and some suitably sized hose. I got mine together on Ebay for £2, which is daft since the parts blatantly cost about 20p, but anything for a quiet life.

Drain brakes of old fluid. Fill syringe with about 50mm of new fluid. Attach to one of the caliper ipples, and push- the fluid will push up the lines, displacing the air. Obviously you have to do this for both calipers- if you have a 1 down, 1 across brake line setup start from the last one in line.

That'll give a decent but imperfect bleed after one go, usually, maybe 2 minutes work. Now, you've got a choice, you can either push it back down from the lever, leaving the syringe attached- conventional bleeding really. This'll clear any persistant bubbles in the caliper. Or, you can just carry on pushing fluid up, sucking it out of the reservoir if it gets full, and repeating- but I find it best to use a mix of the two. Push up, push down, push back up. Repeat if neccesary, but it's not usually.

Things to watch for... Obviously, the hose can pop off the nipple, so hold it in place. If you're not careful you can overfill the reservoir without noticing. And if you do it too much, or too fast, you'll end up with microbubbles in the fluid same as if you pump the lever too fast when bleeding normally- needs to be left to settle if this happens. And if the nipple's too loose the fluid will escape past the threads.

What's quite nice is that you can avoid ever having any "free" fluid, no open jars etc- you can use the syringe as a receptacle to push fluid into when bleeding from the lever, it'll expand to take it.