Subject: [TR] Bleeding Hydraulics on a TR6

From: William Brewer <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 22:30:05 -0700 (PDT)

I had to remove the brake and clutch master cylinders and brake
proportioner switch on my 1974 TR6. I've rebuilt a variety of brakes before
and never had a problem bleeding the systems. This time around, I had my son
pump the pedal about 5 times and hold and then I crack open the bleeder and
vent out fluid. It worked okay on the clutch slave, but on the brakes I can't
get anything to come out. I just wanted to verify that you start at the
bleeder farthest from the master cylinder first.
     I was told that you
could hook a Mityvak up to the bleeder and vacuum pump the air out. It doesn't
seem to work. How does one use a Mityvac to bleed brakes? Maybe you have to
hold the pedal down while you are vacuum evacuating the brake line. Does
anyone have any hints?
     I am going to look for a one man bleeder tomorrow.
     Gotta get this car back on the road while we still have good weather.
   
 TIA,

     Bill in Tehachapi

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From: "Randall" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 00:20:03 -0700

> I just wanted to verify that you 
> start at the

Shouldn't matter, you should be able to get fluid no matter where you bleed first.  The book does say to do the farthest cylinder
first, but I think it's just to reduce the amount of bleeding required.

Sounds like you need to bench-bleed the MC.  You might be able to get it going by bleeding at the outlet fittings while on the car.

> seem to work. How does one use a Mityvac to bleed brakes? 

That's the theory, didn't work for me either.  I think it was pulling air past the bleed screw threads, instead of fluid from the
MC.  BTW there is a reservoir that you are supposed to use between the MityVac and the brakes; the pump doesn't like brake fluif.

>      I am going to look for a one man bleeder tomorrow.

The Dorman "speed bleeder" bleed valves worked a treat for me.  But they won't help if you can't get the MC to pump.

Randall

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 08:00:41 -0400 (EDT)

I had a similar problem when I replaced my master cylinder earlier this 
year (first service I have had to do to the brakes since 1996).  The master 
cylinder doesn't work so good with air.  In addition to the mightyvac there is 
a device (I forget the name) that applies a modest amount of air pressure to 
the reservoir to push fluid through the system.  I didn't have one of those 
but I do have an air gun so I carefully applied a short blast of air to the 
vent hole in the reservoir cap - taking care to not hold it too tightly to 
the cap so that the pressure would be self-limiting - which forced enough 
fluid into the master cylinder to get things working again.

Bleeding after that was pretty much textbook.

If you have a pressure regulator set it to 5 PSI.  Or 3 PSI.

Dave