Bleeding empty brake lines can take forever....

don't worry about the old fluid, it will pump through and out the bleeders. Make sure you keep the reservoir topped off with clean fluid, keep lid off. Put some rags under the master and try not to spill a drop, brakefluid will dissolve paint and plasitic with ease.

You cannot begin to bleed brakes or even remove the old fluid until everything is assembled.

Open bleeder on one side only. Pump and HOLD lever. close bleeder. release lever.

Repeat 500 times. KEEP AN EYE ON THE RESERVOIR and constantly add fluid...
If you suck in ANY air you have to start over.
Sometimes the MC will burp out air bubbles as fluid fills the lines, this is good!

Do this on one caliper untill you start feeling pressure. Then go to the other side. Alternate sides until you get a solid stream of fluid squirting out of each bleeder.

Takes a little longer with dual brakes lines (rather than the stock single line) because more fluid is needed to fill both lines.

Hopefully if you rebuilt your calipers you went with braided lines. Much improvement over the rubber lines. To prove it, grab your rubber brake line with a tight fist and pump the brake lever, you'll actually feel the rubber lines swell and pulse in your fist, no pulsing with braided lines meaning more pressure to the calipers.

 

nice post right there. Just one thing to add, when pumping the lever tap the master or the handlebar, you'll see more air bubles coming out and it will be faster to bleed them.

I actually found the sweet spot in the master piston and if I hold the lever in that spot, a bunch of air comes out. I just pull the lever a bit, tap, release a bit of pressure from the lever, tap and press again to the spot always tapping that as* huhh that master until no more bublles appear.

 

i rebuild my brake on my zx10r last week.. and it took me for ever to bleed.. just be patient .. very patient hahaha

 

Very, very patient

I've changed my pads to Carbone Lorraine and as always changed the fluid but the lever now is so tight that I'm actually gonna have to release a bit of pressure...it has like 1cm of movement.
I like it tight but not that tight!

 

By the way, no vacume builds up in the master cylinder. The diapragm is there to keep out contaiminents (i.e. dirt and moisture). There is actually a tiny vent hole in the cap to the MC. The pupose of the brake reservoir is to allow extra fliud capacity for pad wear. What you do is bleed all of the air out of the system IN FRONT of the piston. Think of it as a fluid rod pushing on the brake pads.

That said, double check the banjo bolts torgue, if it won't 'pump up'. A tiny air leak will keep it from firming up. I always use new crush washers just to be sure.

Vacume pump does make it faster, but a piece of hose arced into a cup of fluid will work. Just be sure to tighten the bleeder valve BEFORE you release the pressure on the brake lever (so you don't suck air back into the system).

They make some really cheap ($10-ish) one-way bleeder valves, that eliminate the wrenching on the valves as well. I've heard a lot of positive review of them, although I've never used them myself, (I have a pump).

 

when u know how it get easy to learn how to do brake... open, pump, hold it and close the valve. when the line are full then start to bleed ..

 

As funny as it sounds, I had the same problem as the original post when i bled my brakes today (no rebuild of calipers for me, just doing a normal flush). I purchased 3 speed bleeders and popped them in, then I started to bleed my rear brakes first.

At first I got out all of the old liquid (and purposely trying not to let the reservoir go empty), but it went empty anyway. I then filled with fluid and kept pumping and pumping and nothing was coming out. After 30 minutes, still nothing. So, I then realized that I had to take off the plastic thing under the the screw top and the rubber thing (I originally filled the fluid in the rubber thing).

Then magic, the fluid was coming out and my brakes was bled. Speed bleeders are marvelous. Takes 5 minutes to bleed brakes now that I got them. I will bleed every season now.

Cheers!

 

Hey supersnake mind sharing those part numbers for the speed bleeders

 

I did this a while back and all I did was buy a 3/8th(cant remnember) plastic hose that fit air tight over the nipple and ran it into a plastic cup.....I opened the nipple and master cylinder and literally pumped the brake depressing hard and quick about 200 times....NO NEED to wrench the nipple back closed after depressing the brake EVERY TIME...if you punp the brake hard and fast enough you will SEE the DOT4 slightly creep back but it shouldnt be enough to be at the spot it was prior to that depress....just watch the fliud and make sure its eventually and ultimately going in one direction (OUT into the cup) Make sure your tube is air tight on the nipple and is faced down (gravity) into a cup....watch the master cylinder and as the level goes down refill carefully...NEVER let the fluid in the MC get low (if low enough, it will suck air in and you've just voided all your hard work)

Enjoy watching the air bubbles stream out in to the cup....just keep pumping that dang brake nonstop until you see no bubbles in the plastic tube

 

SB8125 or SB8125L. The L is is slightly longer (not really needed, but some believe that it could make bleeding easier due to the nipple poting out further). I purchased the Stainless Steel version for double the regular price at $15.00 a pop.

These are great for cars too. I will be ordering some when I bleed me brakes in my Civic.

Speed Bleeder Bleeding Brakes Bleeding Motorcycle Brakes Automotive Bleeder Screw Brake Bleeder