Eezibleed Nightmare - Desperate - Please Help!

[Dad]

Guys

It's a long story, but I've just shipped a beautiful and immaculate 1966 4.2 series 1 FHC across the pond from Blighty to Canada and now need to bleed the brakes. I've been assured this can only be done under pressure from the reservoirs so used an Eezibleed kit. Followed instructions to the letter. Nothing above 20 psi. Front brakes went fine. Rear brakes a different story.

I started with rear passenger (RH drive) and could barely get any fluid to move. Despite covering everything anywhere near the reservoirs in towels, fluid has leaked all over the place and I have managed to knacker various areas of paint on the frame around the reservoirs. I am currently feeling heartbroken and pretty upset. Only way to fix this will be to strip the engine bay down and repaint. Maybe when I'm retired... So, having poured myself a large glass of wine, I come to you with a desperate request;

1) Does this *have* to be done with two reservoirs of highly effective paint stripper under pressure, prone to pissing all over the inside of my pride and joy?
2) Can I do a suitable job using a Mitivac at the calliper end of things to avoid pissing highly effective paint stripper all over the inside of my pride and joy?
3) In what order should I bleed?
4) Can anyone please tell me a very funny joke to cheer me up?

Many thanks for taking the time to read.

Dom

[jag68]

Hi Dom
Sorry to hear of your problems. I've got a few paint blotches on my frames as well - from seeping supply hoses.

I've found on my '68 that the brakes bleed themselves - that is by gravity. Top up the reservoirs - open the bleed screws (both if you wish) on the back and push the pedal a few times to get it started. I don't use tubes on the bleeder screws, but I also don't depress the pedal with sufficient force to cause a spray of fluid out the screws. After a few minutes you should start to see fluid running out - pump the pedal more if necessary - it will run out quite fast so watch the reservoirs. Watch till there is no more bubbles in the running fluid - tighten down the screws - press on the pedal to see if there is still air in the system - reopen if necessary. Spray the area down with a can of brake cleaner over a tray to catch it. All of this works better if you remove the front shock absorber and spring. Good luck.

[chrisvine]

Hi Dom,

Sorry to hear about the paint damage. You're not alone in having problems bleeding the brakes. I really struggled getting any fluid out of the rears, although I was priming the system from dry. I got a Mityvac specifically for the problem you mentioned but also because it can be operated single handedly, but still no fluid came out. As Jag68 suggests, it should in theory bleed slowly by gravity with the bleed valves opened. When this also failed, I had to fault find back from the servo cylinder. Once it was confirmed that fluid was being pumped from the servo cylinder by depressing the brake, removing the flexible pipe from the IRS union allowed it to bleed to that point by gravity. At the same time air was blown through from the IRS union to each caliper (removing the bleed valves in turn).

I think part of the issue I had was the remote bleed kit fitted had sprung bleed valves which must have been binding. The pressure difference caused by the Mityvac or brake pedal wasn't sufficient to break the seal.

Chris

[MarekH]

Dear Dom,

Have a look at your copy of the manual or directly at your car to determine which set of brakes are served by the master and which by the secondary (and booster). When looking at the booster, the master circuit is the one which connects to brake pipes from nearest to the firewall at the booster. The secondary circuit is the one which has brake pipes going to the callipers which connect at the booster furthest from the firewall. Bleed the master circuit first. You do not need to use any special kit.

(There are three types of people in the world - those who can count and those who can't.)

kind regards
Marek

[kingzetts]

I have successfully bled my brakes using the time-honoured technique of an assistant (wife or son depending on who I could catch) pumping the brake pedal on demand.

For filling and bleeding a totally dry system I found that it was initially difficult to get fluid to flow to the rear brakes for reasons I never fathomed, but found that disconnecting the flexible pipe to the IRS and pumping the pedal until fluid came out there helped a lot - after that it was plain sailing.

You certainly do not need any special kit.

Good luck.

[Dad]

Many thanks, guys. That really helps. I'll try the old school method with my twelve year old son who simply loves sitting in the thing, let alone actually pressing pedal!

[Heuer]

+1 for Mityvac, -1,000 for Eazibleed although the rear callipers can still be a challenge. I always keep a bucket of water or a hose handy when working on the braking system and because brake fluid takes a bit of time to affect the paintwork and is highly water soluble drenching the area is very effective.

[iani]

+1 for having water handy, I have even gone as far as preemptively pouring water around the area in the past. I used an Eazibleed for the first time this week on my clutch reservoir without issues but I did keep the pressure down to 10psi.

Ian

[awg]

Hi, I gravity bleed them all these days, even though its much slower. Replace the $10 rear rubber hose as a must. If fluid doesn't run out, there can be a master cyl or servo fault. Generally need to pump the rears to get them started. You can and should attempt paintwork repairs under hood, as the fluid is corrosive, scrub area with metho, carefully mask off, and repair affected areas, (but you need to go back to bare metal).