5 replies to this topic

[alsy]

My mini has 4 drum brakes and no servo, so im expecting it to be fairly easy to bleed?

I havent ever bleed brakes but i have a vague idea of how to do so, and i bled my clutch perfectly.

Im just asking really for any pointers on how to get the best result out of doing it myself and a real quick guide line of how to bleed them just to make sure what im thinking i have to do is right. thanks

[lrostoke]

There is an order depending on what circuit the brakes use. As a rule I generally work from furthest from master cylinder inwards.

So rear passenger, rear driver, front passenger, front driver.

Firstly if you haven't make sure all the cylinders are free and the pistons all move, good shoes, then adjust the shoes best results with drums is to get a fair bit of friction between drum and shoe.
Rears I adjust until it locks then back off a quarter turn, Fronts adjust till a fair bit of restance to turn.

With the bleeding its best with two people.

Top up fluid
pump pedal a few times then pedal down release nipple, tighten nipple then pedal back up. pedal down, release nipple, tight nipple, pedal up. A clear tube and jar is best, keep going till no air bubbles showing.
Keep checking fluid level in reservoir.

repeat on all wheels

[alsy]

Yeah thats exactly the order i was going to do them in, as it made more sense to have the air coming out of the furthest first.. Thanks for that Much appreciated.

[dklawson]

There have been a few recent threads on this topic and bleeding the clutch.

Steve and I use very different methods to achieve the same result. In fact, I had never heard of the method Steve uses until a few years ago.

My method involves 2 people and it is sometimes referred to as a "flushing method" of bleeding brakes. It starts similar to what Steve does. You need 2 people, a length of clear tubing, fresh brake fluid, a wrench for the bleed nipple, and a catch jar for dirty brake fluid. The order of bleeding is the same as Steve's.
1) Fill the brake reservoir.
2) Connect the clear hose to the bleed nipple and place the other end in a catch jar with a small amount of brake fluid.
3) Crack the bleed nipple open by 1/2 turn and call "DOWN" to your helper.
4) Your helper presses the brake pedal down and when they reach the floor they call out "DOWN" back to you. They HOLD the pedal down.
5) You close the bleed nipple and call "RELEASE" to them.
6) Your assistant lets the pedal up and calls "UP" when the pedal returns to the top.

You repeat steps 3 to 6 until you no longer see bubbles in the clear tubing when the pedal is moving to the floor. Then you move on to the next wheel after topping up the reservoir again.

You can see that this can be used to flush the entire brake system of old fluid. If you are re-filling a completely empty and rebuilt braking system, your assistant must push the pedal down VERY SLOWLY when working on the rear brakes. The reason is that you need to avoid shifting/closing the rear brake bias valve during the bleeding process.

Also worth mentioning is that the drums need to be adjusted before you get good pedal height. If you find you are having to pump the brake pedal twice rapidly to get a firm, high pedal, adjust the drums before looking for other problems. If the brake pedal is high but squishy AND you have installed new brake shoes, remove the drums and make sure you put the shoes on in the correct position (there are pictures in the manual showing where the relieved section of the friction material should be).

[lrostoke]

Actually Doug your method is same as mine, I just didn't explain it as good I also release the nipple , press pedal, close nipple, pedal up, release nipple etc etc

[dklawson]

Sorry Steve. I thought you were talking about a method that some of the good-old-boys I work with use. They have an assistant sit in the car while they are at the bleed nipple. They have the assistant pump the brake pedal fast and hard several times and hold the pedal down after the last pump. Then they crack the bleed nipple and a jet of fluid shoots out. I hadn't heard of this method until a few years ago. I just stick with what I describe above since it is what I have done since I was a teenager.