Bleeding wheel cylinders????

[kaptnkaos]

Hey Guys,

I picked up a pair of new wheel cylinders for the '68 CS today... I am hoping to finish up brake project tomorrow.
I know how to bench bleed the MC, how do I bench bleed the wheel cylinders.
I have heard of using a turkey baster or a little squirt bottle to fill the cylinder with fluid before actually bleeding the brakes.
Whay do ya'all think..???
Any input or ideas would be greatly appreciated...

Thank you...

KaptnKA S

[stephen44]

I wouldn't think you had to bench bleed wheel cylinders - just attach them up and open the bleed nuts till the fluid comes out - making sure the master cylinder does not get too low. This should do just fine.
I'm sure some one else will correct me if this is wrong though

- Stephen

[my2beamtk]

I wouldn't think you had to bench bleed wheel cylinders - just attach them up and open the bleed nuts till the fluid comes out - making sure the master cylinder does not get too low. This should do just fine.
I'm sure some one else will correct me if this is wrong though

- Stephen

KAPTNKAOS , Thats the way I do it. I place a small glass container , old fruit jar, that I can see into . Fill part way with brake fluid , connect a hose from bleeder valve into fluid and pump away until there are no more bubbles . Close valve and go on to the next cylinder and repeat . Start at the right rear cylinder . You may have to go around again to get all of the air out . One person can do this by themselves . Sometimes it's hard to do with cars that have a proportioning valve and disk brakes , but at least you can get it so you can drive it to a brake speacialist to finish the job . You may not need all this information but I thought there may be others reading this that could benifit from it .

[stephen44]

or the harbor freight one man bleeder kit ...


http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=37201

or the vacuum one for a bit more

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=92474

[fordman]

no need to bench bleed the wheel cylinders.

[JMcTurnan]

Just let em bleed without master cylinder running out man, just make sure you save the precious fluid.

[kaptnkaos]

Hey stephen44,

I bought one of those vaccum pump ones from HF a couple of years ago... poc
i bought it to bleed the brakes on my bus "Olde Skool" 'cause it has 8 wheel cylinders.
It broke the first time I used it.
I have the other one as well... it actually works pretty darn good.
It's good to know that bench bleeding the wheel cylinders isn't necessary.
I was begining to worry, 'cause I couldn't find any info about it.
The one I wish I would have done was flush the lines before installing the new wheel cylinders.
The passenger side cylinder was filled with a thick brown sludge.
When I removed the cylinder from the hose, the hose dripped brake fluid, so I think the sludge was probably confined to the cylinder itself.

KaptnKA S

[fordman]

you can still clean the lines out. before you bleed them. just take the lines off of the wheel cylinders fill the master and push the brake until clear fluid comes out.

[kaptnkaos]

Hey Fordman,

I thought about that too... there is a problem Houston...
In order to disconnect the hose from the cylinder would require replacement of both hoses and the brake lines going from the distribution block to the hoses. Which is a major PITB from the bottom anyway, both of mine are pretty much welded together at the connection point where the metal line changes to rubber hose. There is a clip that holds the hose and a junction piece that connects the two lines.
The corners on that fitting are rounded off so bad that you can't get a hose line wrench on it, I'd haveta use vice grips, so I know that the metal line would either crimp or break.
In order to disconnect the wheel cylinders, I had to soak them real good with PB Blaster, then get the hose broken loose. then i had to removed all the brake parts and remove the two WC bolts so I could spin the WC until it came off of the hose on the other side of the backing plate.
I'm thinkin' that I could just remove the bleeder screw (one side at a time) and pump the brakes once and check the fluid. After doing that a few times, it should get out all the old fluid... and like I said, the fluid that dripped out when I removed the hoses looked pretty clean, the sludge seemed to be contained inside the cylinder. Most of which was on the outside, between the rubber and the metal plungers inside, not in the cylinder reservour itself.

Edit: pretty much everything I'm doin' now is just temporary... (so I can drive it now). I plan on coverting to disc brakes next summer after I get everything on the PDB units I pulled off of the '71 rebuilt and ready to install as a unit.

KaptnKA S

[kaptnkaos]

Hey my2beamtk

I re-read, it didn't address the issue that Fordman ans I were talking about...
which was keeping any of the sludge that may be in the lines from getting into the new wheel cylinders.
if I was able to remove the hoses from the back of the wheel cylinders and flush them out before the actual bleeding process begins. The most I'd be out is possibly a cup or two of brake fluid.
I normally buy it by the gallon, so it's not a big deal.
i can get the hoses broke loose at the cylinder, but can on get about half a turn before the hose starts to twist up.
The brakeline fitting is so stripped that i can't get a wrench on it, which is basically what happened on the other side where I had to cut the brake line and drive a 1/4 drive socket onto the fitting to get it to break loose.
Pretty much everything I'm doing now is temporary because I have a complete duel pistion that I hope to install next summer after it is rebuilt, but I still need to be able to use my truck in the mean time.
So that's where I'm at.. I actually do my bleeding process the same as yours, but I do like using two people doing the pump, hold, open, shut method.

KaptnKA S