Poor Mans Brake Bleeder

Hey Jon, want to add this to the Manuals Section?


Poor Mans Power Brake Bleeder

Have you every worked on you brakes by yourself and wanted to power bled them?

Have you looked at the prices of a power bleeder?

Well for around $16 I made my own. It took me about an hour to make every thing and about 15 minutes to bleed the brakes (only because I had to explain to the wife what I was doing, maybe next time she will help…LOL)

This is not the only way of doing this….your mileage may vary…..

I found this website that got me started

http://www.bmw-m.net/TechProc/bleeder.htm

I found a tank at Lowes for $9.98, the hoses for around $2 and the brass fitting for $4.
I had the rest of the stuff in the garage.

I made the M/C cover out of ¼” MDF board from another project and used a rubber jar opener for the gasket.



The tank
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../68M715047.jpg

The hose and fittings
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../68M715049.jpg
A look at the cover

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../68M715050.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../68M715051.jpg

I added a pressure gauge and used RTV to seal it

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../68M715053.jpg

I cut off the majority of the wand and attached the hose with a hose clamp.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../68M715054.jpg

To be continued……………

I used my Irwin clamps to hold the cover in place. If you want to buy a cover from NAPA it is only $85

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../68M715056.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../68M715057.jpg

I only pressurized the system to 5 lbs. Any higher and my gasket would leak. Next time I will use a different gasket (couldn’t find anything else in the kitchen, don’t tell the wife)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../68M715058.jpg

I started at the with the front brakes and then moved to the rear. Not the worlds best solution but it works pretty good.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../68M715060.jpg

Until next time
Wart Hog

I have a system like that for my other trucks. I have been wondering how to make it work with the master cyl upgrade. Could you drill and tap the cover? Mine has a threaded end for the military master cyls.

You have been busy working on your truck and documenting it all...nice work!!!!
Maybe we should make a brake mods page and put all of them on there together...

Nice pictures and thanks for the thread. I wish you have posted this thread a few months back when I had to rebuild my MC. I never even thought of power bleeding. I performed a quick search for power bleeders and came up with the following link that may be helpful for someone wanting to duplicate your system without the setup time.

http://www.nationaltoolwarehouse.com...qx/product.htm

http://www.nationaltoolwarehouse.com...qx/product.htm

http://www.nationaltoolwarehouse.com...qx/product.htm

Personally, I bled my MC and brake lines manually by using a wrench, DOT 3 fluid, glass bottle, rubber band and a piece of vacuum hose. I could depress the brake pedal and eyeball the bottle for air by leaning down next to the drivers side. It's not exactly comfortable on the knees or as expedient as having a helper, but I was still completed in 30-40 minutes.

When I had my Unimog, I built a power bleeder for it. Since it had a semi-transparent M/C reservior with a screw on plastic cap, I scored a second cap and drilled it to accept a tire valve stem, pushed in from the bottom.

Fill the reservoir, get out the bicycle pump with gauge, install bleeder cap and pump up to 5 psi. Crack the bleeders until the flow stops and re-tighten. Refill the reservior as required. Slow as all get out, but effective. No help required.

Maybe you can find a second M/C cover and drill it to accept a tire valve? A threaded valve with gaskets might be better. Placement would be critical, so the bale would hold the cover on, or you could go the c-clamp route, I guess.

Just lofting an idea here.

For those of you with a stock MC, just take the cap to the hardware store and by the adaptors to get you to hook up to the hose.

I have one of these in my class:
http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item....re&dir=catalog

It has these caps on it:
http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/6...dercapsoq2.jpg
Snap-On didn't have a picture on the website, so I just took this one.

I bought the quick connect fitting pictured on the caps and the adaptor to screw it into the stock MV vent hole on the MC caps. Works great on stock M715's and M35's.

I bought a non Snap-On version years ago from a pawn shop for the house and just used it the other day on the M35 after I replaced a fitting a student had cracked and I didn't catch until the paint on my home shop floor started peeling.