Praise for the Actron vac pump!

[ekirtz]

I hadn't been looking forward to replacing the brake fluid on the 2 Silver Stars, but I know that any bike "new to you" you can't assume anything. I realized that I had an actron vacuum pump/brake bleeder setup that I had purchased years ago in order to set an adjustable vacuum advance on a car so I figured I'd try it out. I don't have any other bikes with hydraulic anything so I hadn't done this before (besides the 2-man "step on the pedal" game in a car).

It was so easy! I did both bikes in half an hour! Opened the master cylinder, filled it to near the top, attached the pump setup to the bleeder, DREW A VACUUM before opening the bleeder -- then you extract the fluid, maintaining a vacuum, while topping off the master with fresh (DOT 4 in my case) fluid - the important part being to not let it go low enough that the "hole" is uncovered and air gets in. Draw a little fluid out, keep an eye on the master cylinder, close the bleeder and put a little more in, and so on -- It didn't take long until what was obviously the new fluid was what I was drawing out of the bleeder.

Not a bit of air in either line! And I'm just a knucklehead! Imagine what you skilled folks could do! It's not like this is new information, but maybe someone might benefit from this lil post.

Maybe this thing cost 50 bucks or so, it was a long time ago. The actron looks just like the others I've seen, nothing special about the particular brand. This one is plastic, and is fine by me.

Eli

[billr]

Great info. I've always wondered about using a vac pump to help with the brake bleeding.
BillR