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pneumatic bleeder

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healeyboz

healeyboz

Jedi Knight
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Should pneumatic bleeders be used at a low psi setting? How low is recommended. I have used them in the past and believe setting them at about 80 psi. I am having issues with getting a good bleed and wonder if setting it down will help. How low can I go?
 
The pneumatic bleeder I have used (ezeebleed) has a chuck to fit on a tire-stem. I run my tire pressure at 25/26 psi and that has always worked pretty well, even being a bit high, so you could go down even lower than that!
 
I had problems with high pressures, not the least of which was squirting brake fluid all over. Bleeding was a problem, too. I find that below 15 is very good, so I use my spare tire for it.

Peter C.
 
So Peter, walk me through your low pressure bleed. do you adjust the rear brakes all the way in before you bleed or is it necessary?
 
Nope. Nothing fancy. Just open a bleed screw. Just a few turns. You might run too low on air pressure is the only problem if it all doesn't work quickly. Is this from a start, or dry system? That I do by gravity. Fill'er up, open a screw, grab a beer.

Peter
 
Okay, so low psi is the key. I set the compressor at 15psi and drew from the rear first. The front calipers needed a bit more pressure. I raised to 25 pounds and it work perfectly. Small air bubbles worked their way out. Next step is to remove the slave and let dangle. I will repeat the brake bleed (low pressure) process and hopefully get a good bleed. I can never believe how little room is in the slave area!!! Ridiculous!!!
 
Barry:

Please keep us posted on your efforts with the clutch. I'll be trying to get my going this weekend, so I'd like to hear how you make out.

Mike Pennell
 
No problem. The frustrating this is that last summer I bled everything and it was easy. All went as it should and now there are issues. Oh well. It doesn't seem as if I am the only one with clutch bleeding issues. It seems to be very common if not a standard. I will get this thing right. Either tomorrow night or Sat.
 
Allright. I know there is all kinds of stuff on here about this but, come on!!! I had a bit of clutch going into this by using the old fashioned finger over the hole and someone pumping the pedal. I disconnected the slave from the tranny and hooked the pneumatic bleeder up to her and saw quite a bit of bubbles come through. They eventually stopped and I figured it was okay. Now there feels like a constant pressure but no clutch! Instead of putting the slave back in to test, is there another way to test and see if we finally got it? Should one be able to (if the slave is disconnected from the throwout rod,) push the rod in by hand?
 
New developments. Bubbles will not stop. I had the clutch working until today but not great. Very little clutch. If I bleed the clutch in place and then adjust the rod from the pedal to the mc it will work but not that great. Ihave a feeling that it is compressing what fluid/bubbles are in the line and then allowing enough pressure to engage the clutch. Thoughts?
 
You are not the only one by any means. Mine is not right yet either.
 
I would say it may be time to check all connections/bleeder(s)! If bubbles keep coming back after it has been purged it must be sucking air into the system from somewhere!!!
 
I here ya Mike, but man,,,, it would have to be leakin fluid too.

What are the rod lengths supposed to be? I mean, if the plunger on the mc is all the way out, (not engaged at all) what is the length from the end of the rod to the end of the piece that connects to the pedals? I seem to remember that there are different sizes for the different tandom MCs.
 
I bet you still got air in there. I have never had any luck with the vacuum type bleeders on vehicles that were hard to bleed. The only two ways I found was from the bottom up bleeding or get the car on the right kind of hill so the air will come out and then bleed it. A friend of mine had this same problem trying to bleed the brakes on a 4 wheeler. He had replaced the pads and tried all day to bleed it. Even went and bought a vacuum type bleeder and gave up. I went over and looked it over. I asked him if he could stand the 4 wheeler up on its back end and he did and then we bleed it through the bleeder in the normal way and it got the air out.
 
so.... anyone ever hung a spridget by the toe hooks? :wink:
 
Barry, it's not so much the length of the rod (but I think approx. 3.5" for the clutch rod)as the free play in the rod (which should be +/- 1/32"!)

Trevor, it sounds like you're getting medieval on your car! :jester:
 
hhhmmmmm. I have gone through too much brake fluid trying to do this. I can't imagine anymore air being trapped in the lines. But that is really the only possibility, isn't it?
 
Yes, the first time I dealt with one like that I went through over a quart of brake fluid. There has to be a lot of air in the line. So much that the fluid gets by the air that is trapped up in the high part of the line.
 
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