Larry asked
"Of course there are the bleed screws that have a check valve, where you
step on the brake, and bleed with this valve open, as the check valve
stops air from coming into the system when you let off the pedal.
Sounds great, does anyone have experience with this system. Summit has
them at $10 a pair."
One-man bleeding is a way of life for me. So this has been important.
I bought the check valves from Dave Bean and am extremely happy. I had the
suction type. You pump it up creating the vacuum, then open the valve. It
actually sucked fine. The problem I found was that the whole thing it was
somewhat squirlly and hard to keep positioned, causing it to fall over.
Once it falls over, the brake fluid that's in it backs up into the valve so
the next time you pump the fluid mists out of the little valve and hits
your paint, hands, etc. Not a pretty site. I tried a number of ways to
fasten it down to prevent this, but ultimately gave up.
I found two types of these self bleeding valves. The one I got from Dave
Bean has sort of a large round ball which fits over the hole inside of the
slave cylinder/caliper. The ball is attached to a rod which runs into the
threaded part and a large spring keeps it pressed against the hole. When
you tighten the valve, the spring compresses and the threaded part goes
around the spring and pushed the ball on the rod into the hole. There is
no greater threat of leak than a stock valve. This was $12 a pair.
The other type I found at Pep Boys. I think the brand was Russell. This
valve contained a small ball-type check valve inside of the bleeding valve
itself. So, it offered a much smaller passage for the fluid to go through.
>From the outside, it looks identical to the stock valve, with the fluid
going through the hole on the side. Again, if properly tightened, there is
no increased risk of leakage.
The bleeding was so easy and clean compared to the "old" method, I think I
actually did it a good 3 times.
Two thumbs up from me.
Jay
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