Harbor Freight brake bleeder

[etohio]

I bought a 1988 Venture that had been sitting for more than 3 years. The clutch did not work at all so I thought that since it had no fluid in it maybe it just needed fluid and bleeding (who was I kidding). I tried and tried to bleed it with no luck. I bought a rebuild kit for the master and slave and also a Harbor Freight bleeder. Rebuilt the master first and tried the HF bleeder without rebuilding the slave. Bleeder worked great and had a little clutch action but looked under the bike and had a flood of brake fluid there. I took out the slave and rebuilt it (thanks for all the posts that said it did come out) did the bleeder thing and it worked great. Had clutch!

 

The front brake worked some but not good. I did the HF bleeder on it and it worked fine then. The rear brake did not work at all. Tried the old method of bleeding and had no luck. Did the HF bleeder on the front left then on rear then on fitting at steering head and went through front rear and head again. Got a full brake. The HF bleeder worked great it was on sale for $20 and it could of been the best $20 I ever spent. One other thing that is nice using the bleeder is that I need no one else to help me. The only other thing I did was to put a turn of Teflon tape around each bleeder screw so that air woud not leak while bleeding.

 

Hope to get everything done so I can go to Maintance Day.

[MiCarl]

Do you mean THIS one?

 

Greatest thing since sliced bread.

[etohio]

item 92474

[dingy]

Do you mean THIS one?

 

Greatest thing since sliced bread.

How do you operate this?

 

 

I am the village idiot.

 

Gary

 

 

[etohio]

The tool is basicaly a vacume pump and what you are doing is sucking the brake fluid from the master through the system there is a little cup that is in between the caliper and pump that catches the old fluid.

[MiCarl]

How do you operate this?

 

 

I am the village idiot.

 

Gary

 

 

 

Gary,

 

The bottle with the big handle hooks to the air hose. The hose on it goes to the bleed nipple. Squeeze the trigger and it vacuums the fluid through. Way faster than a hand pump, plus there is trigger lock so you can start it and hover over the reservoir keeping it topped up.

 

The slender bottle is designed to keep the reservoir full. Idea is you put fluid in it, invert it over the reservoir (there are a bunch of adapters so it hangs on) and open the valve. As the reservoir draws down the bottle refills it. It's for cars/trucks, not practical for motorcycle use. I am thinking that long neck might be just the ticket for filling the rear master cylinder on a 1st gen, but haven't tried it yet.

 

Carl

[dingy]

Gary,

 

The bottle with the big handle hooks to the air hose. The hose on it goes to the bleed nipple. Squeeze the trigger and it vacuums the fluid through. Way faster than a hand pump, plus there is trigger lock so you can start it and hover over the reservoir keeping it topped up.

 

The slender bottle is designed to keep the reservoir full. Idea is you put fluid in it, invert it over the reservoir (there are a bunch of adapters so it hangs on) and open the valve. As the reservoir draws down the bottle refills it. It's for cars/trucks, not practical for motorcycle use. I am thinking that long neck might be just the ticket for filling the rear master cylinder on a 1st gen, but haven't tried it yet.

 

Carl

 

I've got a mighty vac system that looks like the number that Ed Teixeira posted. I was confused by the hanger on the larger unit you showed. And the smaller bottle looked like it had an air port on the top.

 

Gary

[bongobobny]

Also, if you spring for another $20 you can get a set of speed bleeders that replace the original bleeders, and they work fantastic. They have 1 way valves in them and a teflon coating on the threads so you won't have air leaking back in from there. Actually, twith the speed bleeders you don't need a vacuum pump unless your entire system was replaced and is dry, or you just rebuilt your master...

[Condor]

Do you mean THIS one?

 

Greatest thing since sliced bread.

 

I saw that one on the last flyer I received from HF. Looks like it'd work a lot better than the Mity-Vac. Anytime you can move fluid through the system faster than an air bubble can float it'll purge the air out.... No more pumping up the pressure and cracking the bleeder.... MOF I've found that when bleeding calipers after putting on new pads I don't even try to pump up the pressure to seat the pads until after I've purged all the air out. Then I'll close the bleeder and pump up the pressure. Works great when speed bleeders are installed.