Quote:It continues to amaze me how little I know about the simplest of things...

Two weeks ago at Firebird, I pitted next to a friend of mine who's a former Pro-Drive mechanic and World Challenge crew chief. After suffering some brake issues, he offered to bleed my brakes with me. I'd already done it and was sure the peddle height/firmness was as good as ever, but I DID have some crappy fluid that needed to be flushed, so we did the deal.

My clever British pal and his crew guy come over with two brake-bleeding bottles. He tells me its best to do one front and one rear at the same time so that the master cylinder piston goes all the way to the bottom of the bore. I nod like I understand what he's taling about and get in the car. So I'm ready for the usual pump & hold, yell & release crap when he says, "Right. Pump away." Recognizing from my hesitation that I am an ignorant Yank who was obviously confused by this simple directive, he speaks more slowly. "Just push the peddle all the way to the floor and release. Keep at it until I tell you to stop." Hard to miss that kind of clarity. So I proceed.

During this process, I notice two things... Thing One: he's got both bleeders on the driver's side wide-open the whole time and there is NO resistance. The fluid's just gushing right out. Thing Two: the peddle travel feels like it is going all the way to the fucking radiator, it is going so far. After it seems like I must have pumped a quart or two of fluid thru the system he says, "Hold it all the way down." He locks the bleeders and they both move to the other side and we repeat. With that done and the new fluid in the system, I figure we're gonna go around now and actually bleed the air out...

He then comes over to the driver's door, looks at me and says, "How does it feel?" I mash the peddle expecting it to be completely full of air from all the open-bleeder pumping. But it is hard as chinese arithmetic and all the way at the top of the travel. I feel like an idiot. All the bullshit I've learned about three pumps and hold, start at the right rear, yadda, yadda, yadda... all of it... is now totally out the window. And the brakes have NEVER felt better.

Fucken amazing.

Thawley

ViPER1313 Wrote:Question:

Vacuum Bleeding - works ok or not as effective as pumping pedal??

ViPER1313 Wrote:Question:

Vacuum Bleeding - works ok or not as effective as pumping pedal??

ViPER1313 Wrote:Question:

Vacuum Bleeding - works ok or not as effective as pumping pedal??

Maengelito Wrote:

ViPER1313 Wrote:Question:

Vacuum Bleeding - works ok or not as effective as pumping pedal??

i havent had any problems with a handheld vacuum pump for bleeding brakes. its just more of a pita, but it seems to work fine for me.

white_2kgt Wrote:

ViPER1313 Wrote:Question:

Vacuum Bleeding - works ok or not as effective as pumping pedal??

sucks. much more than a PITA than the above process if you only have 1 person, just stupid if you have a helper. I haven't tried the pressure method where you pump up the MC reservoir.

Evan Wrote:

white_2kgt Wrote:

ViPER1313 Wrote:Question:

Vacuum Bleeding - works ok or not as effective as pumping pedal??

sucks. much more than a PITA than the above process if you only have 1 person, just stupid if you have a helper. I haven't tried the pressure method where you pump up the MC reservoir.

my vacuum bleeder works great. I use it when Im alone and the pedal is rock solid. Its powered by air, and pretty fast. No hand pumping (even though Im sure you're well practiced in that art)

Evan Wrote:my vacuum works great. I use it when Im alone, rock solid.