Poor Man's Pressure Bleeder

[Jim Wilson]

For those of you interested in buying a pressure bleeder for your brakes, here is a cheap alternative that I made. Go to your local hardware store and get a small sprayer, some brass fittings and some tubing. Then go to your local car parts store and get a cap for your master cylinder. Drill a hole in the cap, cut a gasket out of rubber (I used an old mouse pad) and use some silicone sealant. Total cost about 20 bucks. Only have to give it a couple of pumps for it to have enough pressure to bleed the brakes. I had to stuff some rags around the master cylinder because the seal leaked though.....

 

[yogibayer]

My guess is that you then put brake fluid inside the sprayer canister to keep air from entering the lines. My question is how much did you need to put in?

 

[ruckdr]

Jim,
Nice design; see picture of mine I built in 2005. The rubber stopper must be held in/on the reservoir, thus requiring 2 people (my wife loves opening the brake lines and watching for new clean fluid).
The rubber stopper seals very tight around the tube and does not leak.
Yes, around $15 - $20.

yogibayer,
NO fluid in the canister, it only supplies compressed air to the brake fluid reservoir to "PUSH" the fluid through the brake lines. Keep adding fluid to brake fluid reservoir as fluid is pushed out the lines.

 

[Jim Wilson]

I acutally put a quart of brake fluid in the sprayer; thus the leaking, but no need to refill.

Next time I'll use Ruckdr's method, that is definitely cleaner if you don't have a good seal.

As an alternative to the sprayer, you could hook it up to an air compressor, just be sure to use very low pressure or you'll blow out your master cylinder.

 

[RoadiJeff]

I still use a gadget I bought at AutoZone a few years back for $5.99. It is basically a small plastic bottle with a magnet on the top to hold it against something metal near the brake caliper. The kit includes several fittings to attach to your bleeder screw and a clear plastic line.

There is a one-way valve on the bottle and so you just hook everything up, pump the brakes 4-5 times until clear fluid and no bubbles are seen in the tube and move on to the next bleeder screw.

It works great, although it might take a couple of more minutes than a pressure bleeder.