Bleeding Brakes

CLEMTOG said:
I always make a right bleeding mess all over the bike lift and floor. Just hate the stinking feel and texture of the stuff, much prefer it the boys do it for me, but remember, any spillage, with most brake fluids it is washed, neutralised and dispersed with plain old water use lots of it
CLEM
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In my family it's referred to as 'alien's blood' Clem. For good reason. Always wear gloves when I'm near it.
 
CLEMTOG said:
I always make a right bleeding mess all over the bike lift and floor. Just hate the stinking feel and texture of the stuff, much prefer it the boys do it for me, but remember, any spillage, with most brake fluids it is washed, neutralised and dispersed with plain old water use lots of it
CLEM
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Before I bought a vacuum bleeder, I used a home-made pressure bleeder to force fluid in through the bleed nipple. The logic behind doing it that way was that it forces the fluid up through the system from the bottom to the top, carrying the air bubbles in the direction they naturally want to go.

It was basically a pressure-tight canister with a Schrader valve in the lid and a feed line with a stop cock coming out of the bottom that connected to the bleed nipple. The bleeding process went something like: fill the canister with fluid and seal the lid, connect the fluid feed line to the bleed nipple, pump a few psi of air into the canister, crack the bleed nipple and open the stop cock to let the pressurised fluid flow into the brake system. Sounds simple.

Well, that was the theory. In reality it was fraught with issues. Firstly, if you didn't seal the bleed nipple threads, the pressure would make them leak, dribbling fluid all over the caliper, disk, wheel, tyre, and bike lift table. Secondly, it would quickly fill the master cylinder reservoir and if you weren't on the ball, it would overflow, causing a cascade of fluid all down the handlebars, fork legs, and probably onto your head. Thirdly, if you put a bit too much air pressure in the canister, it would blow the rubber connector off the bleed nipple and hose brake fluid all over the workshop and yourself until you managed to grab the thing and stick your finger over the end of the hose, then turn off the petcock. By that time, half the fluid would have been blown out. I learned pretty quickly not to pressurise it with compressed air. It only needed a few strokes of a bicycle pump.

The pressure system did actually do a good job of bleeding brakes if all the stars aligned. But more often than not I'd just end up making an awful mess with brake fluid dripping off the ceiling, and myself, then have to go and buy more brake fluid.
 
Well gravity worked, got master cylinder and splitter slanted down and left ……. plus praying to the great Laverda god in the sky. Thanks for advice
 
Massimo is in his families, former employees and our hearts. That is how I sea "heaven" - nothing there up in the sky... I fly a lot, I have never seen anyone sitting on a cloud, believe me... ;). But if it helps anyone to believe he is now constructing new Dell'Orto equiped harps in heaven - I am the last to debate that with you...
 
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True story, at a rally...exasperated owner.... "my front brakes are soft".... ( me ) call over a couple of robust Laverda blokes, lay the Laverda over to about 45 degrees, left side down. Owner in my ear... "whats that going to do?" slowly and i mean slowly, crack the master piston about 30% of travel, resivoir cap off, bubble..bubble... toil and trouble... repeat, repeat hand action and chant... bubbles stop...cap back on, blokes to the vertical.... try it now.... proper lever pressure, finish my cup of tea, was drinking with spare hand, whole time.... back brakes...syringe, big one... once i did fear lose my mind trying to bleed the air from brakes... not any more. HTH J.
 
I once spent a full weekend swimming in rear brake fluid after changing pads on my Pantah, tried every trick I had ever heard of, pulled the calliper and held it up, back squirted it with a syringe, overnighted it under load nothing worked so I trailered it to a very well known Ducati shop where they discovered a misplaced washer on the rear set link wouldn't let the piston move past the tiny hole in the master, $400 later I was finally riding it home past Licarte and the rear brake stopped working. I got off the bike to find the calliper dragging along the road by its hydro line. Luckily it didn't fall into the wheel spokes and kill me. The genius who did the job forgot to tighten the calliper bolts. I got an apology and a very scared look from the boss.
 
I found the best way to do the rear (RGS) is take the whole assembly off and hang it with the m/c uppermost and let all the air rise to the top.
It's a bugger getting air out of that loop that goes around the wheel.
 
Gerald said:
Malicious gossip has it that the Alfasud rusted in the brochure, not in the dealer showroom....
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Most probably true... Friend of mine had one... I helped him servicing the sucker once. Remember well, wenn I asked him what this plastic bag is for that hangs on (I think to remember) the right side inner fender. "It's for the fluid of the windscreen wiper/washer"

It looked a bit like a warming bag or like a catheter bag really. I lifted it a bit to find a big hole in the inner fender... condensing water had rusted the inner fender completely through...

The friend crashed the car some weeks after in a spectacular crash (car took off, turned in the air and crashed on the top, flipping it over 3 times or so...). No glas was unbroken, even turn-signals were destroyed etc. - and that was his luck (beside him surviving the crash without major injuries): The car was only insured partially comprehensive - which included broken glas! He did not get one cent for the car itself, but the broken glas was so expensive that he basically got back what he paid for the car... :ROFLMAO: He did not learn though and bought himself a Triumph Spitfire... :rolleyes: second worst car after the Sud, but at least it looked nicer...
 
Lothar,
Nice thread hijack here! Alfa had the brilliant idea to fill the axle structures with expanding construction foam, rust setting in real quick.
Triumph Spitfire was the yellow lemon recipient in '77 IIRC.
There's a reason why I stay away from old cages....
 
Laverdalothar said:
Most probably true... Friend of mine had one... I helped him servicing the sucker once. Remember well, wenn I asked him what this plastic bag is for that hangs on (I think to remember) the right side inner fender. "It's for the fluid of the windscreen wiper/washer"

It looked a bit like a warming bag or like a catheter bag really. I lifted it a bit to find a big hole in the inner fender... condensing water had rusted the inner fender completely through...

The friend crashed the car some weeks after in a spectacular crash (car took off, turned in the air and crashed on the top, flipping it over 3 times or so...). No glas was unbroken, even turn-signals were destroyed etc. - and that was his luck (beside him surviving the crash without major injuries): The car was only insured partially comprehensive - which included broken glas! He did not get one cent for the car itself, but the broken glas was so expensive that he basically got back what he paid for the car... :ROFLMAO: He did not learn though and bought himself a Triumph Spitfire... :rolleyes: second worst car after the Sud, but at least it looked nicer...
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The Alfasud was a hoot to drive, just rev it to 8,000 RPM and don’t slow down for corners. A major issue with the external boot hinges, which rusted until the boot lid came off in your hands...😳
 
Legs said:
I found the best way to do the rear (RGS) is take the whole assembly off and hang it with the m/c uppermost and let all the air rise to the top.
It's a bugger getting air out of that loop that goes around the wheel.
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Use a vacuum bleeder, works very time, I‘ve never had a problem.
Child’s play compared to bleeding the 5 master cylinders on a Piper PA28 aircraft!
 
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