DIY Pressure Bleeder

Here are instructions for making your own pressure brake bleeder.

https://www.apexcone.com/Bleeder/bleeder.html

Nice design, I'll have to steal that.




PC.

That looks great, I think I will build it too. Sure looks like it would beat asking the wife to push the pedal for you seeing as how well most husbands and wives communicate. You get the picture.

A simpler alternative for those with an air compressor (and who doesn't have one of those?) is to get a spare MC cap and drill a hole through it to accept a brake hose. Screw the other end of the hose to your air (blow) gun and regulate the pressure way down to around 15 psi. Attach the cap to your filled MC and pressurize it and open the desired bleeder.

[Thanks to Nelson Reidel at Buckeye Triumphs for this setup.]

When you pressurize a hydraulic reservoir without an external fluid/air tank you are limited to the volume of fluid in your reservoir. If your lines and slave cylinders have the same or greater volume than the reservoir (common with older cars that have tiny single reservoirs and standard for clutches) you will run out of fluid before the system is flushed. You will either have to stop, depressurize, disconnect and add fluid or you’ll get air in the lines and have to start over.

The tank lets you flush a very large volume of fluid through the system. That’s great when you’re doing a system that hasn’t been touched in a long time, less important on a race car that its bled often. With a system that holds about a pint I flush through a quart of fluid so it comes out copious, clear and clean. (I’d probably re-think that policy if I was using Castrol SRF!)

Be sure to always use up the whole lot and never, never, never use glycol based fluid that’s been left sitting in the tank. It will be saturated with water. That’s a bad thing.

I’d been planning on making a bleeder rig that screws onto the top of a standard 1-quart brake fluid can but this one is so cool I’ll probably make it instead.

The first modification I would add is a fitting (probably a Schrader) for relieving pressure and/or hooking it to a compressor. You could use it either hand pumped or pressure fed.

The second is a valve in the feed tube near the cap to stop flow instantly if needed. If the seal between the cap and the reservoir isn’t tight you can get a lot of fluid spilling out very quickly. I learned that lesson the hard way with my Eezibleed (connected to my compressor).


PC.