[alfa] Brake / clutch bleeding procedure

[alfacybersite <acs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Man, we're gonna beat this one until it's totally limp.

Regarding holding down the pedal until the bleed screw is closed, as has 
been mentioned, of course eliminates air being sucked back in through 
the threads - particularly on the clutch slave cylinder whose bleed 
screw is shorter than the brake variety and seems to me has coarser 
threads, though might well be wrong there. Doesn't' matter if your tube 
is "firmly" in the brake fluid in your pickle jar, or you have a Speed 
bleeder, still gonna happen - much of the time. If one is merely 
"freshening" the brake fluid, no major air has been brought into the 
system. Not so if the entire brake or clutch system has been removed 
then sometime later replaced. Lotsa air to get rid of.

It certainly helps - not sure if this one has come up this time or not - 
to wrap teflon tape around the bleed screw threads - being careful not 
to overlap the ends.

Lalo Ruiz tells us all we're doing it the hard way and mentions an 
European Power Bleeder. I could see where if one has a steady flow of 
fluid under pressure, it "might" overcome the tendency of brake fluid to 
be sucked back up the threads when the pedal is released. On a personal 
level my concern is I still have the original brake fluid reservoir on 
my Alfetta GT - two caps with notches in the threads of both for the 
wires for the low level brake warning light. One has to remove these 
when filling, now what does one do with the gap?

Additionally what if one misjudges how much fluid will be needed and 
still have a pint or more in the bleeder's reservoir - major turkey 
baster time?

Again, I'm sure no one who has written in would have done so if their 
method didn't work for them, but still feel "especially" after one has 
just installed a new brake MC, four rebuilt calipers, and fresh flex 
lines, it's not going to be a 10 minute job - and then there's the 
750-101's with six separate brake cylinders to "overcome" and hope none 
are leaking inside the drums.

Biba
Irwindale, CA USA 
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