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brake fluid flush


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I read earlier today on this board about a device that is useful for flushing brake fluid. I remember something like 'Vacumite' or 'vac' something. I was trying to find the post this evening but cannot find it. Searched on every brake related term I could think of ... I remember a mention of not making your wife pump the brake pedal and a link to someone who fabricated a gadget for doing this using :rolleyes:

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When I flushed my brake system, I used a simple "one-man bleeder" hose. It's just a clear vinyl hose with a one-way check valve on the end, which prevents sucking air/old fluid back into your system. It was very inexpensive (around $6). KD and Performance Tools make them, available at most automotive parts stores.

It is not powered or pressurized. You will need to pump the brake pedal manually, but it's really no big deal. No need to call the wife for help.

I placed a phone book underneath the brake pedal to prevent pumping the pedal too far beyond it's normal travel. Apparently if you pump too far, the pistons' seal may travel across areas of corrosion, ruining the seal.

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I not long ago read an article about building a one man power bleeder. The more I think about it the more I think it was in "The Home Shop Machinist". It was basically a 1/2 gallon garden sprayer from Ace hardware with the sprayer removed and the hose fitted a modified spare master cylinder cap. Then the sprayer was filled with brake fluid and pressurized thus pressurizing the brake system so each caliper could be bled simply by opening the bleed valve like opening a faucet.I think the guy got fancy and even put a pressure guage on it. These are guys who like to tinker and reinvent the wheel. It almost had me convinced to make one, then I thought, how many times do I flush brakes. If anyone is interested I will try to figure out how to scan it and post it.

I personally use my own homemade version of the mity-vac. I simply took a glass jar and drilled two holes in the top, 3/8"-1/4". Get two pieces of 1/8" I.D. copper tubing and carefully bend each to a 90 degree angle (don't kink it). Then put the two "L" pieces of tubing in the holes and solder them air tight. If I explained this correctly you now have a jar with two tubes coming out of the top, bending 90 deg. and extending about 1' beyond the side of the jar. Now just plug a piece of 1/8" I.D. vinyl tubing one one of the copper tubes and the other end on the bleeder valve. Now get your Mity-Vac or similar hand held vaccum pump and plug the hose on to the other copper tube and pump away. As you suck the air out of the jar, the jar being connected to the bleeder valve will bleed down the brake system when the valve is opened and the brake fluid will be collected in the jar. Works great without the wife!

Last week I had a great idea to eliminate the hand pump. I machined a plug for the hose end of my shop vac with an 1/8" nipple on it to power vac the system down. It didn't work as well as expected. I found out that it didn't "suck" very well so I hooked it up to a vaccum guage and believe it or not a shop vac only pulls about 2-3 in. of vaccum.

Talk about tinkering :rolleyes:

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I not long ago read an article about building a one man power bleeder. The more I think about it the more I think it was in "The Home Shop Machinist". It was basically a 1/2 gallon garden sprayer from Ace hardware with the sprayer removed and the hose fitted a modified spare master cylinder cap. ...

here the link:

http://www.apexcone.com/JimPowellHomepage/...er/bleeder.html

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I flushed my system last year using the Mityvac tool. I purchased the kit that comes with the brake bleeding attechments. It was fairly cheap if i recall around 30 bucks. i also checked out making a power bleeder or just making one from the aco stuff,but when I purchased a spare master cyl. cap it just did not fit rite so It was just easiet to me to but the miyvac tool which I was skeptical of the tool but it worked very good and was easy to use. Only draw back to the mityvac is that the drain bottle that comes with the tool is small and you have to drain it after you bleed each wheel Just a couple pumps did the job sucked the fluid rite out. All in all I would go with the mityvac tool. A power bleeder is nice but for as often as I would use it every 2 yrs. on 2 cars it was not worth it to make or buy a power bleeder plus the mityvac can be used as as a vacuam tool also.If you look at the power bleeders that are available some of them have a chain that goes around the master cyl. cap to hold it down the pressureize the master cyl. which is what I would have had to make if I wanted to make one I could have just made a new cap at work from scratch on a lathe that would have fit tight but that would have been a lot of work..The mityvac is easy to use and does the job and it took me about a half hr. to do the car the hardest part is pulling the wheels I did one at a time starting at the wheel that was farthest from the master cyl and working to the closest..wheel.

Good luck

Jim

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