Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Bleeding Brakes!

[quote=Dean-Royal]Richard

you can check for " brake travel" on each corner with this type of tool

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BRAKES-FUEL-HE...=item3a73830010

quote]

Dean, great tip - thanks.

I got a few minutes this evening and had two small clamps so attached one to both caliper brake pipes at the front. Instant hard pedal with less travel. I removed each in turn the pedal returned to "soft" and longer travel.

So it seems there is air in both calipers. At the weekend I will try one more bleed, if not I will take them off, rotate them and try and bleed them off the car (with a vacuum pump). Fingers crossed.

The Eeze Bleed is designed as a topper up, but if the reservoir on the master cylinder is full, you'll get a bit of bleeding done with nothing in the Eeze Bleed bottle. So if the cap leaks where it connects to the master cylinder, you don't get brake fluid everywhere.

Sometimes, the traditional way, with an assistant is the only way of bleeding. When you've closed the bleed nipple - get your assistant to sidestep the pedal and allow it to come up with a bang. I've used this technique successfully on a number of cars and most recently, a Land Rover clutch.

When using the Eezibleed, I surround the master cylinder with lots of crumpled newspaper to soak up any leaking brake fluid.

Never spill a drop.

BUT, before I adopted this practice ...........!

Sorry Martyn, I don't agree about the topper up comment. I've successfully used Ezibleed to bleed, flush and fill from dry hydraulic systems on Morgans, Formula Fords and other cars. I agree with you comment regarding the difficulty of sealing the cap. If I find it a challenge to get a seal, I use an oil filter removing tool, flexible nylon strap, not chain or metal to tighten the cap; sometimes I use two seals but avoid over-tightening for obvious reasons.

My experience with the Ezibleed is that it works perfectly providing you select the correct size top/seal for your master cylinder and you keep the pressure to 5-8psi.

You can disagree if you like - but I think I'm right! Has to be said though, the rest of your reply makes this look a very minor point of disagreement.

The Eeze Bleed is essentially a device that does two jobs. It uses the pressure in a tyre to both top up the reservoir and also uses the pressure to bleed the system. If you have trouble with fluid leaks on the reservoir cap, providing the reservoir is not run dry, you can use one as a pressure source.

From a design point of view, if there are no fluid leaks from the cap, the amount of fluid it uses to top up, is exactly the same as the fluid and air you've taken out of the system.

Cable brakes as per my three wheeler - much simpler!

You can be as right as you like.

Today I got back in to the garage to try again....success in the end.

I started by trying a vacuum bleeder on the front calipers and this made no apparent difference to the pedal feel.

I then removed each caliper from the car in turn. I did this to check the new seals etc. for any leaks (all OK) and then I pushed them out a bit by pushing the brake pedal a few times. I then rotated them around a bit (to see if any air was in the far side of the caliper to the bleed screw and brake pipe. I then bled them off the car. I pushed back the pistons and refitted the calipers.

The pedal now feels much firmer, shorter travel and the you can feel the brakes "bite" when I took the car around the block. I'll take the car for a longer drive tomorrow and try one last bleed but I think I've finally got all the air out.

One final, age old tip - push the brake pedal hard down and wedge it in position with a piece of wood, leave it overnight and test it again in the morning.
Often this will remove the last little bit of "sponge" feel to the pedal. I guess the persistent pressure over several hours squeezes out minute quantities of trapped air as it is substantially less dense than the fluid.
Also, if you are using silicon fluid apparently this is a lot harder to bleed successfully and the suction method reigns supreme particularly with older systems.

Simon

I might just give that a try Simon....many thanks.