brake bleeding tip

After having gone thru all of the hair pulling and discussion of this particular parts ancestery I finally got the the brake bled!!

The problem started out as a simple pad replacement which proceeded to go south at a very rapid rate and ended up in my having to take the caliper off and to the mech to replace the seals which decided that this was the time to give up the ghost.

After getting the caliper back and the new pads installed and the caliper mounted, I started to bleed the brake, (right front). Now this is where the hair pulling and dicussing the caliper's ancestery began. I tried the regular way of pumping the brake handle with the bleeder screw closed with no success. Aha, I thought. I will go to the Venture site and do a search to find out how to bleed the brakes. I found and tried the reverse bleeding method, again with no success. Now this was beginning to take on all of the aspects of a 3 ring circus! So, I thought why not try the reverse bleeding method again but with a minor modification. Instead of filling a bottle and holding it up like a IV bottle, why not use a 60cc syringe which I had in my tool box. Btw, my daughter is a nurse at a local hospital and she got me a couple of these. If you are a nurse or know one, get a couple of these and keep in your tool box, they are handy as a third hand. But I digress. It worked GREAT!!!! This way you can use pressure to reverse bleed and it only took about 20 minutes to fully complete the job and have a good hard brake handle.

Don H.

fun ain't it , think it was condor , said use a oil pump can , and it works .

fun ain't it , think it was condor , said use a oil pump can , and it works .

A syringe sounds like a great idea, but for those of you that don't have access to a medical syringe, use one of those ear cleaner bulbs you can buy from the drug store. Cut the end off the bulb just enough so that it fits snuggly in the thread opening after taking the bleeder valve out. Too much and it'll be to fat to fit in the hole...too little and it'll bottom out and not allow fluid to enter the caliper. So take a little off at a time to get the right fit. Fill the bulb with DOT 3 and squeeze it into the caliper. Don't worry about reloading the bulb if you need more. The fluid will start to flow out the caliper and air won't easily enter. I usually stick my finger over the hole just to make sure. There's a few more way's that I've read about on the board, and they all seem to work fairly well. Reverse bleeding works equally as well on clutches. It's the linked brakes on the 83-85 mark 1's that are a problem because of the 'hump' formed by the brake line going forward. Air get's trapped in the high spot and is a bear to get out. I've been thinking about drilling out an extra reserve plug and fitting it with a brass hose bib that will allow pressure bleeding of the back master. It's still in the 'what if' stage. I chatter too much...........

A syringe sounds like a great idea, but for those of you that don't have access to a medical syringe, use one of those ear cleaner bulbs you can buy from the drug store. Cut the end off the bulb just enough so that it fits snuggly in the thread opening after taking the bleeder valve out. Too much and it'll be to fat to fit in the hole...too little and it'll bottom out and not allow fluid to enter the caliper. So take a little off at a time to get the right fit. Fill the bulb with DOT 3 and squeeze it into the caliper. Don't worry about reloading the bulb if you need more. The fluid will start to flow out the caliper and air won't easily enter. I usually stick my finger over the hole just to make sure. There's a few more way's that I've read about on the board, and they all seem to work fairly well. Reverse bleeding works equally as well on clutches. It's the linked brakes on the 83-85 mark 1's that are a problem because of the 'hump' formed by the brake line going forward. Air get's trapped in the high spot and is a bear to get out. I've been thinking about drilling out an extra reserve plug and fitting it with a brass hose bib that will allow pressure bleeding of the back master. It's still in the 'what if' stage. I chatter too much...........

I have used a vacuum pump to bleed brakes and such for some time now with pretty good success. A few months ago, someone on here mentioned the one-man bleeder valves that replace the normal bleeder. You just attach a hose so that the fluid goes into a container instead of the ground, unloosen the valve and pump the lever. When air bubbles stop in the hose just tighten the valve and do the next caliper. Takes about a minute or two for each caliper. What could be easier.

Dick

I use the Myti vac bleeding tool, pump thru with vaccum, the do the standard method, and alternate betweent the two. So far has always worked.

But I still don't understand why bleeding brakes and clutch on the Venture is such a problem compared to any other vehical I have done brakes on. ??? Seems to be a mystry, and everybody seems to have the same problem.