The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Yet another brake bleeding question

Chris,

My poor wife can certainly relate to your wife’s pedal pushing dilemma. Early in our marriage we had a succession of VW's. My wife must have done the pumped the brake pedal dance on over two dozen occasions. My experience is that even if you bench bleed a master cylinder you still may have to try for several minutes of pedal pushing to get the master cylinder to a point that it has enough pressure to properly bleed the brakes.

My world famous method of bleeding brakes is to have the wife pump the pedal three times and hold the pedal to the floor board. She then yells go and I open the right rear slave cylinder with a 10mm or 3/8 inch wrench and let some air and fluid out. (I connect a clear tube to the bleeder and submerge the other end in about an inch of brake fluid in a one liter clear bottle.) I then close the bleeder before air or fluid moves back into the slave cylinder. I keep repeating the process until the fluid runs clear and air bubble free. I then move to the left rear, right front and finally left front. If the breaks are still spongy, I do the whole job again. (With the appropriate complaining from my wife.)

Another observation: I seem to only have to bleed brakes when it is raining or is 10 degrees outside. (It's nice to finally have a garage after 20 years in the Army.)