Brake Gurus chime in please

[Gerald Morris]

No booster on my setup....just the new dual master and brake safety block, or distro block. So, after some time, here is where things stand. Had the older master rebuilt by White Post Restos.....great sleeving and rebuild. This time used the lines to bench bleed, and as noted above, did the bleed again after finding air sucking in one wheel cylinder during bleed. Replaced the one wheel cylinder, as noted by Big John, and also suggested by rebuilder. So, then gravity bled because my help was busy. No pedal. Got her to pump brakes later, and no pedal.....not happy. So, starting from scratch, found two wheels a bit loose on the shoes.....not much but not tight. Also, was not getting enough fluid thru rears. So, start over with pressure bleed on reservoir.....a lot of crap to stop the air leaks on the adapter. So with very low press, maybe 15 psi, began at back yet again. Bled rears and found some air in the RR. Then, the last one, LF, found a bit of air there too. So, after my trials, I have some brakes. Now what I like is a rock hard pedal. I have maybe 90% and the wheels will lock up on gravel drive now.....and need more road test to seat the new shoes. So, for today, I am a happy guy with enough brake to road test. Good thing that when I was young it was not this hard, or I would have bailed.

Glad to see you don't use a booster! W a good master and good wheel cylinders, there just isn't any need for them on regular passenger vehicles. Now, if hauling heavy loads, say, putting more than 3 tons on the road, I'd want a booster. Otherwise, a well designed system will do nicely without that, as I've found with my pickup truck!

If called on to bench bleed a master, I do it literally; on a bench, to make damned sure the master IS AIR FREE before I hang it on my firewall. That approach serves me well. Also, it seems to simplify testing the wheel circuits to have them disconnected from any master. I found I could more easily bleed the brake lines and cylinders while the master was loose, by virtue of a turkey injector syringe full of brake fluid and a little bit of hose too.

 

[66furys]

Well, I must say that that is an interesting idea. I am thinking that this system is really hard to get all of the air out. I keep seeing bubbles.....after repeated attempts. Have bled a lot of brakes, and never had this kind of problem. But, live

 

[Gerald Morris]

Well, I must say that that is an interesting idea. I am thinking that this system is really hard to get all of the air out. I keep seeing bubbles.....after repeated attempts. Have bled a lot of brakes, and never had this kind of problem. But, live

Its really an easy bleed. I always work solo, so can't rely on another body to pump the brakes while I wait below to release the pressure. So, I open one bleed valve at a time, rig a catch jar, and push fresh fluid through with either the master, or, if changing one out, the Tony Chachere's turkey injector syringe. Nice to see the fluid when doing this too.

 

[Big_John]

I broke down and bought one of these a while ago and it was money well spent.
Amazon product

Mrs. Big John just isn't good at bleeding brakes... She tries at least... but she's great at everything else, just not bleeding brakes. I've done vacuum pumps, set up jars and hoses etc. and this is the easiest and fastest way. I use a c-clamp to hold the top on the MC rather than their Mickey Mouse chains.

 

[Gerald Morris]

I broke down and bought one of these a while ago and it was money well spent.

Mrs. Big John just isn't good at bleeding brakes... She tries at least... but she's great at everything else, just not bleeding brakes. I've done vacuum pumps, set up jars and hoses etc. and this is the easiest and fastest way. I use a c-clamp to hold the top on the MC rather than their Mickey Mouse chains.

Looks like a nice rig. Does it pressurize the whole system or the front or back circuit respectively?