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I learned a couple of things today...


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I was pulling the rear wheel getting ready for the VMax rear end swap. To get the axle out, I usually use a wood dowel and hammer on the threaded end to start it moving. Once inside the wheel, I continue banging it through using a long extension. Once its about half out, I can grab it from the pinch bolt side and pull it on out. Today, I couldn't get it moving at all. I checked the pinch bolt... ok. Nothing in a bind that I could see. Banged some more... nothing. I was getting rather frustrated. For some reason I stuck my finger into the axle on the pinch bolt end. I thought I felt a hex hole. Looked in and there was a hex opening. I grabbed my 10mm allen wrench hoping maybe I could turn the axle and maybe break free whatever was holding it. It turned fairly easily. I also found I could pull out on the lower end of the wrench, putting it in a bind in the axle, work it back and forth while pulling, and the axle slipped right out. No more banging. Maybe everyone but me knew about this, but I hadn't seen it anywhere so thought I'd post it.

 

Next was bleeding the rear brakes after doing the Butler mod. I couldn't get the master cylinder to prime. Pump, pump, pump... nothing. I figured that maybe I had an air lock in the tube feeding the MC. I used a set of long needle nose pliers to gently squeeze and release the tube. Sure enough. I got a lot of air out the top and fluid down the tube... but still nothing through the MC. I've got speed bleeders installed. I thought that maybe with so much air in the line, it was compressing the air and not opening the speed bleeder valve. I took the speed bleeder all the way out. It worked! A few more pumps and fluid was moving. I pumped real slow so as not to shoot brake fluid everywhere. As soon as most of the air was out of the line and fluid started bubbling out, I put the speed bleeder back in and all was well. Still took a little while to get all the air out, but it's done. I can't say for sure that the speed bleeders were the problem. Maybe the MC gravity primed while I was messing with them, but I sure suspect them. If I had pulled the bleeder first, I might not have needed to clear air from the tube connecting the reservoir and MC.

 

The first image is pretty blurry, put you can just make out a hex shadow inside the axle. The next three show the allen wrench in place and me pulling and turning the wrench to slip the axle out.

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I love the speed bleeders and intend to keep them!

 

I can't be sure they were the cause. The only reason I suspected them was because I had tried everything else I could think of. The proportioning valve was wide open for the bleeding. I'm assuming the bleeder works with a check valve and needs enough pressure behind it to overcome the spring and flow fluid out. My thought was that with a line full of air I couldn't get enough pressure to open the valve. You know how weak a brake is and how little pressure you get with any air in the system, and much less with a whole line full of air. Remove the bleeder, remove the need for pressure. I'm not saying my assumptions are right, just what worked for me.

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