Poor man's brake job vacuum

[Gray Ghost]

Watched a brake job today. The instructor used an old Gatorade bottle and 3/16th hose as the vacuum for the job. Really worked well. The way it was set up is to take a length of hose that fits over your bleeder valve and drill a hole in the bottle cap that the hose will just slip into. Run the hose through the cap into the bottle. Then hook the free end to your bleeder valve. When you are ready to start bleeding/draining the fluid, open the cap on the bottle slightly, and squeeze the bottle. While holding the bottle in the "crushed" condition, tighten the bottle cap which will create a vacuum in the line. Open the bleeder valve and the fluid will flow. If the vacuum is exhausted before the bleed is finished, just close the valve, open the bottle cap and crush again. I was impressed with how well it worked.

[hydraulicman]

This sounds like a good idea, but I bought speed bleeders as well as the collector bag and nothing could be cleaner or simpler.

[Gray Ghost]

Speed bleeders are nice for bleeding the brakes, I had one on my last bike. But for a complete drain of the system the bottle trick does a great job quickly.

[Condor]

Sounds like a good idea. Just make sure you don't suck the reserve dry....

[Naked Rider]

been there done that got the air bubbles to prove it lol

[djh3]

Nice addition to the "frugal" mechanics tool kit.

[friesman]

Just make sure the bottle you choose wont get eaten by the brake fluid.

 

Brian

[ACE50]

This sounds like a good idea, but I bought speed bleeders as well as the collector bag and nothing could be cleaner or simpler.

 

++1!