Sanity check brake bleeding idea

To avoid having to buy a full set of speed bleeders for every car, what do you think of this?

Acquire a single speed bleeder or other well-sized one-way valve. Attach tube from bleeder nipple on the brake caliper to the threaded end of the unattached speed bleeder. Run tube from unattached speed bleeder to bottle. Crack caliper-end bleed nipper. Bleed normally as though it had speed bleeder installed right in the caliper.

Basically, instead of having a proper setup of one speed bleeder replacing each standard bleeder, I have a speed bleeder that I can move from one bleeder to the next, which sort of just extends each standard bleeder and ends it with the speed bleeder.

Does this make sense? I need to purge some air bubbles, I'm in a major pinch, and I don't have a buddy to help me bleed these brakes.

Worth a shot. I don't know how stiff those speed bleeder valves are, but you might need to use a clamp to keep the speed bleeder from coming out of the tube.

When you say "or other well-sized one-way valve", you're describing the one-man bleeder kit at Harbor Freight.

With Alan's caveat, I think your idea to use a speed bleeder might be even better, if only for having a better valve. That said, while I prefer pressure bleeding, I certainly had reasonable success with the HF kit.

One last thought; if your nipples aren't a good fit in the caliper threads, you can suck air there. I haven't used the speed-bleeders, but IIRC they often have some sort of coating on the threads, which I assume is there to act as a seal improver for that part of the job...

That HF kit has a valve in it, what, up at the bottle end? Hard to tell from the crappy picture.

ransom wrote: One last thought; if your nipples aren't a good fit in the caliper threads, you can suck air there. I haven't used the speed-bleeders, but IIRC they often have some sort of coating on the threads, which I assume is there to act as a seal improver for that part of the job...

This, you have to make sure there's no air between the stock bleeder and the bottle on the speed bleeder's output, that's a lot of tube to get fluid into before you crack the stock bleeder open. Once that's taken care of it'll work, but is it better than just installing a set of speed bleeders?

EDIT: Whoops I mean no air between the stock bleeder output and the speed bleeder's input. You don't need anything after that other than a catch bottle.

GameboyRMH wrote: ...is it better than just installing a set of speed bleeders?

I need to do this immediately. I cannot get speed bleeders for this vehicle within the next 30 minutes.

Also, if this turns out to be a solid approach, I don't have to get a set of speed bleeders for every single vehicle I own.

I was thinking about an inch of tight hose between the standard bleeder and the threaded portion of the speed bleeder.

You'll end up drawing air in around the threads of your caliper bleeder as they are not sealed....in a pinch i've used "duct puddy" wadded around the bleeder and run the hose down to the bottom of a jar with an inch or so fluild in it. and just pumped the brakes.

Don't overthink it. Put a bit of brake fluid in the bottom of the bottle so the end of the hose is underwater and use the stock bleeders. Easy.

To avoid sucking air in through the threads, just open the bleeder enough to let fluid out. It's 1/4 turn at most.

Personally, I've been doing gravity bleeds. Just crack the bleeder open and let it dribble. It's like a slow pressure bleed without any special tools. Works very well, even on things like old Land Rovers with notoriously difficult systems.

like my application of frank's red hot, i gravity bleed everything.

Lugnut wrote: That HF kit has a valve in it, what, up at the bottle end? Hard to tell from the crappy picture.

IIRC, yes. Basically a flapper valve in the cap.

Do it for free, as Keith described. I've been doing it this way for many years. It works superbly.

When gravity bleeding, any reason not to do all four simultaneously? I assume you'd just have to check the fluid level more often...

I use one or two fish tank check valves. I wrap the caliper bleed nipple threads in yellow gas line teflon tape and only crack the nipple open 1/4 turn. The results are excellent, even when bleeding two wheels at once. Just to make sure, I tap the calipers with a small brass hammer to move any air pockets towards the top, then repeat the process.

Keith Tanner wrote: Don't overthink it. Put a bit of brake fluid in the bottom of the bottle so the end of the hose is underwater and use the stock bleeders. Easy. To avoid sucking air in through the threads, just open the bleeder enough to let fluid out. It's 1/4 turn at most. Personally, I've been doing gravity bleeds. Just crack the bleeder open and let it dribble. It's like a slow pressure bleed without any special tools. Works very well, even on things like old Land Rovers with notoriously difficult systems.

Annnnd there's the real sanity check. Well done.

Maybe I'm just weird, but I found that if you pump the brakes, the master cylinder pulls fluid from the reservoir instead of pulling fluid from the wheel.

Keith Tanner wrote: Personally, I've been doing gravity bleeds. Just crack the bleeder open and let it dribble. It's like a slow pressure bleed without any special tools. Works very well, even on things like old Land Rovers with notoriously difficult systems.

How long do you let it sit? Do you do all affected wheels at once?

ransom wrote: When gravity bleeding, any reason not to do all four simultaneously? I assume you'd just have to check the fluid level more often...

That's the only reason not to, as far as I know. Although I do like to be able to watch the bubbles so I do one corner at a time most of the time. I've been doing a lot of caliper swaps recently as part of some product development, and there's usually just a tiny bit of air let in. I can bleed the car quickly solo this way, and you'd be amazed at how little fluid it uses.

The Land Rover guys who taught this to me say to led the car dribble for one period of a hockey game Seems a bit long, but I guess it depends on how dry everything got.

The problem with a gravity bleed is shared with a pressure bleeder technique - it doesn't test the connections under significant pressure. If you've got a loose fitting, it'll usually hold under 10 psi but not under real braking or a traditional "pump and bleed" method. So after you do this, clean everything up, start the engine and try to put the pedal through the firewall. Then check for fluid.

This should be obvious, but if you're lazy enough to gravity bleed, you may overlook it:

If a hydraulic line rises above the level of fluid in the master, like say the clutch on a Miata, and your line is dry, you need to do a few conventional pumps to start the siphon. My gravity bleed took an unnecessarily long time that day...

I've been using a MityVac for the last few brake bleeds when I didn't have a second set of feet. Seems to work pretty well.

i've bled the brakes on cars all by myself by just pumping up the brakes, jamming a chunk of lumber between the pedal and seat to hold the pedal down, and then crawling under the car to crack the bleeder.. yeah, it's a lot of work, but it's not as bad as it seems and who can't use a little workout once in a while?