Bleeding Brakes

Scott Herstad shersta@ilstu.edu
Thu, 21 Aug 2003 10:09:23 -0500


Gerado wrote:
> I'm working on my '93 G20 and cannot bleed the air out
> of my brake lines to save my life (literally).  I know
> this page says not to use power bleeders . . .
> But Motive says their product works well.  How do I
> keep from reintroducing air into my brake system?
> Should I just do it manually?  Thanks.

It may be that you have damaged a seal in your master brake cylinder.
Appartently this is not an uncommon occurance when bleeding the brakes
of a higher mileage car. And indeed, this very thing happened to me
earlier in the summer whilst bleeding the brakes on my '93 classic. You
can verify if it is your m/c by carefully pinching closed your four
rubber lines and pressing the brake pedal. If there's still no
resistance, it's probably your m/c. (Note: on older cars, pinching an
old rubber brake line makes me very nervous. A shop did this without
checking with me. I made sure to carefully inspect each line for cracks,
and will probably be installing braided steel lines anyway this fall.)
IIRC, a new m/c was about a hundred bucks and fairly easy to install. I
believe there are install tips somewhere in the archives.