Brake And Clutch Fluid Change.

I just made one via eBay. 2m of 5mm clear tube, Y connection, 100ml syringe, 1way valve. Cost about £9. Not tried it yet though.

There was another thread on this I started about 2 weeks ago with lots of good tips.

 

Regarding fluid, don't get DOT5. DOT 4 or DOT5.1 are your puppies.

Shell DOT 5.1 High Performance Brake Fluid Car / Bike - 1 litre ltr | eBay

The other thread explains why.

 

Hi

It was a separate thread on DOT4.
Is All Dot4 Created Equal? | Ducati Forum

 

Just bough one of those "little Bleeder" one way valves for bleeding my clutch only a fiver gonna try it tomorrow, will let you know how it goes...that's if the slave isn't goosed.

 

I bought one of those and it didn't really work as I hoped, so last time I did some bleeding I resorted to the old jamjar method.
In the recent thread, one of the posts suggested running a tube all the way from the bleed nipple back into the reservoir. Sounds like one of those blindingly obvious "why didn't I think of that?" ideas.
Haven't tried it yet but can anyone think of why it wouldn't work??

Come to think of it, I can see some downsides. You'd need to purge the old fluid into a jar first, using another short tube. Also the tube itself will hold a lot of corrosive fluid but I guess that can just go back in the can. The tube going into the master cylinder will need to be securely clamped in place, so as not to spray fluid all over the bike if it comes adrift but then you won't need to keep topping up all the time which is also risky for the paintwork.

 

It would work, but the idea is to get rid of air and to get clean fluid, without any contaminants, into the system. By putting the fluid back into the reservoir you would be putting fluid that probably has moisture (brake fluid absorbs moisture from the air) and small bubbles in it.

 

Yes, you'd need to purge the old fluid in the conventional way first.
I've seen a suggestion to get rid of small residual bubbles by tying the lever to the bar overnight. I tried doing this in case I had some but couldnt detect any difference.
If this works on small bubbles though, why wouldn't it work on bigger ones? Given you have time to wait that is...

 

For the 10 minutes that it takes to bleed the clutch in the conventional way, I think that I will stick to that. Now if I was thinking about bleeding the front brakes on my ABS equipped BMW K100RS that is another matter, anything to make the job easier would be great!

 

Many years ago when i first started working on vehicles I was told never put fluid back into the system that has just been bled off as it will have minute air bubbles in it completely defeating the object. Whether correct or not this is something I still stick to today.
Steve

 

So never re-use even clean fluid from the jamjar, always top up with completely fresh from the can...

 

I was told to leave it to settle for 24 hours then should be safe to re-use.
Steve
On second thoughts it might have to stand for a few days, it was a long time ago.

 

Most of the big bubbles will come out but any moisture will not and if the jar is open then more moisture will be absorbed into the fluid. It is not as if we are talking loads of money for new brake fluid here, just buy some!

 

I do. I was answering a question.

 

So is the basic approach to connect either tube or tube/one way valve to nipple.. Build up pressure with brake lever.. Then crack nut and bleed. Tighten bleed nut and release lever. Repeat whilst always keeping reservoir topped up?

Is this correct?
Same with clutch?
I've a £9 halfords easy bleed bottle/valve so i don't need any fancy vacuum gun thingies?

 

P

Pretty much, except you don't need to build up lots of pressure. Gentle pressure is just fine.