Antoine
Administrator
Thanks to Luni<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> vbmenu_register("postmenu_", true); </SCRIPT> for this "How-To" (thumb)
"For those of us who hate pumping clutch pedals and brake pedals, and found that the cheap ass plastic hand bleeder pumps are crap, and if you want a good one its gonna cost you some money, this is a good alternative that WORKS, its CHEAP as hell to make, and its EASY.
Ok, get a gatorade bottle. 32oz or 16oz, doesnt matter.
Go to autozone/checker and buy some vacuum line. About 6 feet will prolly do it. Maybe even less.
Drill 2 small holes in the cap. Make the holes slightly smaller than the diameter of the vacuum line you are using. DRILL the holes, so they are perfectly round. Stuff the vacuum line in (you will have to force it) and push it in just a little bit. Should be relatively flush with the bottom of the cap. Screw the cap back on, seal one line while sucking on the other. It should be airtight and hold a seal. If it doesnt, then use some RTV or hot glue or something to get it to seal and then continue. You cant move on until that bottle seals perfectly. I got mine to seal first time.
Pull your bleeder screw off and put teflon tape on it. Then screw it back in and tighten it down all the way with your finger so it seals tight. Stick the vacuum line for one side on the end of it so it seals over the bleeder hole. On the other one, suck the air out of the bottle. It should seal airtight and start sucking the sides in because there will be negative pressure in there. Keep sucking till the bottle starts to distort cause youre depressurizing it inside. Put your finger over the end you were just sucking on to hold the negative pressure in. (you could even put a valve on it so you can just close it and not worry about it losing pressure).
The cool part now. Open the bleeder valve, the sudden influx of negative pressure on one side will SUCK all the air bubbles and fluid through the clutch lines. Youll see the bottle start taking on fluid, and spitting out air bubbles.
It took me over an hour of trying to hand bleed an SW20 (Toyota MR2 2nd generation) clutch to no avail. I put my self made bleeder on there and seriously 10 seconds later it was bled.
Just make sure your master cylinder is full cause this WILL suck fluid through pretty quick.
It works. If you make it right, and the device seals, it works. I promise. And it works better than any hand pump.
Whats cool about it is if you wanted to get lazy, you could connect a vaccum line to the other side, if you installed a valve, and start the engine. Then simply turn the valve and the cars vacuum would bleed it for you. And since its being deposited into the bottle, your engine couldnt suck anything back up into itself unless the bottle filled up, and that is unlikely cause youre watching it and thats why you installed a valve.
It is like the perfect bleeder. Works on brakes, works on clutches, works on anything that is a pressurized system that uses a bleeder valve to purge air from the pressurized system.
Mine I call the "SW20-B" (B is for bleeder).
And another cool thing about this thing, is you can now bleed your brakes, clutch, etc ALONE. You dont need a buddy pumping stuff while you get fluid all over the place trying to bleed by hand."
"For those of us who hate pumping clutch pedals and brake pedals, and found that the cheap ass plastic hand bleeder pumps are crap, and if you want a good one its gonna cost you some money, this is a good alternative that WORKS, its CHEAP as hell to make, and its EASY.
Ok, get a gatorade bottle. 32oz or 16oz, doesnt matter.
Go to autozone/checker and buy some vacuum line. About 6 feet will prolly do it. Maybe even less.
Drill 2 small holes in the cap. Make the holes slightly smaller than the diameter of the vacuum line you are using. DRILL the holes, so they are perfectly round. Stuff the vacuum line in (you will have to force it) and push it in just a little bit. Should be relatively flush with the bottom of the cap. Screw the cap back on, seal one line while sucking on the other. It should be airtight and hold a seal. If it doesnt, then use some RTV or hot glue or something to get it to seal and then continue. You cant move on until that bottle seals perfectly. I got mine to seal first time.
Pull your bleeder screw off and put teflon tape on it. Then screw it back in and tighten it down all the way with your finger so it seals tight. Stick the vacuum line for one side on the end of it so it seals over the bleeder hole. On the other one, suck the air out of the bottle. It should seal airtight and start sucking the sides in because there will be negative pressure in there. Keep sucking till the bottle starts to distort cause youre depressurizing it inside. Put your finger over the end you were just sucking on to hold the negative pressure in. (you could even put a valve on it so you can just close it and not worry about it losing pressure).
The cool part now. Open the bleeder valve, the sudden influx of negative pressure on one side will SUCK all the air bubbles and fluid through the clutch lines. Youll see the bottle start taking on fluid, and spitting out air bubbles.
It took me over an hour of trying to hand bleed an SW20 (Toyota MR2 2nd generation) clutch to no avail. I put my self made bleeder on there and seriously 10 seconds later it was bled.
Just make sure your master cylinder is full cause this WILL suck fluid through pretty quick.
It works. If you make it right, and the device seals, it works. I promise. And it works better than any hand pump.
Whats cool about it is if you wanted to get lazy, you could connect a vaccum line to the other side, if you installed a valve, and start the engine. Then simply turn the valve and the cars vacuum would bleed it for you. And since its being deposited into the bottle, your engine couldnt suck anything back up into itself unless the bottle filled up, and that is unlikely cause youre watching it and thats why you installed a valve.
It is like the perfect bleeder. Works on brakes, works on clutches, works on anything that is a pressurized system that uses a bleeder valve to purge air from the pressurized system.
Mine I call the "SW20-B" (B is for bleeder).
And another cool thing about this thing, is you can now bleed your brakes, clutch, etc ALONE. You dont need a buddy pumping stuff while you get fluid all over the place trying to bleed by hand."
