Mity Vac brake bleeder or using your compressor

["Kerry Pinkerton" <pinkertonk@xxxxxxxxx>]

I use a slightly different approach.  I have a handheld garden sprayer.  Holds about 1/2 gallon.  Put a standard 1/4" vac hose on it.  With a spare MC lid, I drill and fit a barbed 1/4" fitting, being careful to put washers on both sides so it seals.  With the sprayer full of fresh brake fluid and pumped up with the hose over the barb, I lock the trigger down and proceed to open the brake bleeders.  Fluid is forced out under pressure.  Works great and is a one man operation.

 

Kerryp
http://dte.net/57imperial
KaP Imperial Services - Patch Panels, Metalshaping, Restoration
Manufacturer of high quality Wheeling Machines

----- Original Message -----

From: Kenyon Wills

To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 11:53 AM

Subject: RE: IML: Mity Vac brake bleeder or using your compressor

I did the following on the 1960, and it worked well.  I got razzed by a couple of guys here, but it worked for me, so here's the scoop:

 

Mity Vac is a squeeze pump that has a dial vacuum gauge.  I had bought it to see if I could locate the vacuum leak on a Lincoln that had vac operated headlight doors.

 

To bleed brakes, I bought 15 feet of clear surgical style plastic tubing at the hardware store, taking one of the bleeder nipple/bolts out of a wheel cylinder and getting the size that fit right over the bleeder where the rubber cap normally sits.

 

I filled the brake reservoir.  I reinserted the bleeder bolt into the wheel cylinder and attached the hose to the right rear wheel cylinder and left the bleeder bolt in the open position, the other wheels closed.  the right rear wheel goes first as you want to work from farthest point away from the master cylinder and then work each cylinder that is  progressively closer to the Master Cylinder.  When on the front, do the lower cylinder first, as it is farther away from the MC than the top one.

 

Once attached at the wheel, the hose was thrown up and over a rafter and draped back down where I connected the Mity Vac and proceeded to suck the brake fluid through the lines until the fluid came out and started to fill the hose.  Cranked the bolt shut and repeated at all points, working on each successively closer (to the MC) bleeder screw.

 

I had to bleed each point the standard way when the system was full, as some micro bubbles of air were sucked past the loosened threads of the bolt, but that was a 5 minute thing, as there was very little air to purge.

 

Worked great for me.

 

_________________________________

 

So what did the guys that razzed me say worked better?!!??

 

Check this out:  Get a spare MC lid and insert a shrader valve into it, sealing well - just like on your car's tire.  Fill MC and Install lid and force the juice through with air, once again opening the bleeder bolts working from farthest to nearest.  Check fluid level regularly or risk blowing air through if the reservoir empties out on you.  I think that my system had to be refilled 3-4 times as the fluid evacuated into the lines. 

 

I did the pull method.  I sure liked the push method idea and will try it on the next system that I do.  I'd say that either one will get you to the same place. 

 

 

Kenyon Wills          

San Lorenzo/SF Bay Area

 

1960 Chrysler Imperial -->http://imperialclub.com/Yr/1960/Kenyon/Page01.htm

 

1973 Chrysler Imperial  --   >http://imperialclub.com/Yr/1973/Wills/index.htm

 

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