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Brake bleeder Question

N

noresttill

NAXJA Forum User
Location
South Florida
Hi everyone, its been a while.

I am going to be doing a fairly extensive brake job soon (by myself) and was wondering if anyone every heard of these: http://www.speedbleeder.com/

I dont have any brake bleeding equipment, and at $7 a piece this may be a good idea. Unless its not, in which case I would like you all to tell me so.

If this is a "scam" I was looking into the brake bleeder from HF. Any expirience with that?


Thanks,

Jesse
 
A few of the locals swear by them. One guy in particular i am thinking of is pretty sound mechanically .. give them a shot.

Post your results here.

_C
 
yes, these things are life savers. you 'll conventionally bleed your brakes, meaning you'll pump the brakes with the pedal, but instead of having to hold the pedal to the floor and having someone else tighten the valve, the spring does it for you. super easy to use and the only things i will point out that may or may not be obvious is 1. keep the reservior full and 2. get a few feet of rubber vaccume tube and a soda bottle. take the cap off the bottle and run the hose from the bleeder to the bottle to catch the brake fluid. super easy and works awesome.
 
Great! So they are reliable. I was worried that they would start leaking, or the ball would fly out, or something.

Excellent. So they are a quality product and cheaper than a bleeder pump.

Thanks,

Jesse
 
how do these seal the threads while bleading i know the threads are not air tight.
 
They work awesome THE FIRST TIME. Make sure you use antiseize on them when you put them in. I never broke a bolt on my XJ, not even the rear shock bolts doing many lifts on it. But the speed bleeders made me invent new curse words trying to get them loose to do another brake job 2+ years later. Finally got them out with plenty of heat, I tried to use them and the valve inside two of them were shot/corroded. the other two worked fine though after fighting to get them loose. Just use antiseize on them and maybe some type of cover for the bleeder, (I think they might come with covers now)
Good Luck
 
bj-666 said:
how do these seal the threads while bleading i know the threads are not air tight.
Click to expand...

What? I must have misunderstood the question. Not to make your question sound dumb (because it isn't), but your proposition is stating that any thread with metal to metal contact is not air tight. So pretty much any line anywhere in the world with fluid in it is not air tight. I happen to disagree greatly with that. The helicoptors that I fly/work on are not allowed to use any sort of teflon tape or line lock or anything for fear of contaminating the fluid. And many of these lines run pressures higher than 3000psi without leaking or allowing air into the system. So, I don't think that a little bit of pressure from a break bleeder with thread lock or teflon tape on the threads will leak at all. Mine on my Jeep sure don't leak and never have since I installed them when I bought the Jeep in 1999. So I would have to say that your concern that the bleeders not being air tight is unfounded. While bleeding you ask? Same idea. You don't remove the bleeder valves while bleeding conventionally do you? You should only back them out about 1-2 turns, leaving about 4-6 threads still in contact to prevent air from re-entering the system. The Speed Bleeders work the same way, and when backed out a few threads, it allows the brake lines to purge air from them when the brake pedal is pumped by way of the check valve made up of the spring and the BB. Re-tighten them and you're good to go, air free. Also, the concern that the BB might fall out is not out of the realm of possiability, but I've never experienced that happening. Speedbleeder makes a high quality product and I wouldn't think they would have that problem. El-Cheepo's from autozone might, but not name brand ones.
 
53guy said:
What? I must have misunderstood the question. Not to make your question sound dumb (because it isn't), but your proposition is stating that any thread with metal to metal contact is not air tight. So pretty much any line anywhere in the world with fluid in it is not air tight. I happen to disagree greatly with that. The helicoptors that I fly/work on are not allowed to use any sort of teflon tape or line lock or anything for fear of contaminating the fluid. And many of these lines run pressures higher than 3000psi without leaking or allowing air into the system. So, I don't think that a little bit of pressure from a break bleeder with thread lock or teflon tape on the threads will leak at all. Mine on my Jeep sure don't leak and never have since I installed them when I bought the Jeep in 1999. So I would have to say that your concern that the bleeders not being air tight is unfounded. While bleeding you ask? Same idea. You don't remove the bleeder valves while bleeding conventionally do you? You should only back them out about 1-2 turns, leaving about 4-6 threads still in contact to prevent air from re-entering the system. The Speed Bleeders work the same way, and when backed out a few threads, it allows the brake lines to purge air from them when the brake pedal is pumped by way of the check valve made up of the spring and the BB. Re-tighten them and you're good to go, air free. Also, the concern that the BB might fall out is not out of the realm of possiability, but I've never experienced that happening. Speedbleeder makes a high quality product and I wouldn't think they would have that problem. El-Cheepo's from autozone might, but not name brand ones.
Click to expand...

Any experience with the thread seizing up like XJing had happen?
Jesse
 
noresttill said:
Any experience with the thread seizing up like XJing had happen?
Jesse
Click to expand...


No, I've never had a problem like that. But I imagine that anything is possiable. I know that the ball on the inside can become corroded just as easily as the threads so you'll just have to bleed your brakes more often. Also realize that the corrosion is not the fault of the manufacture. I don't know what type of metal they are (I'm assuming aluminum), they may corrode faster because of the metal differences in the bleeder and the brake hardware and also because of the environment. XJing is in Florida with lots of salt air, so that could be a factor as well.
 
the Dorman speedbleeders I bought at advance auto had some grey thread sealant/anti sieze on them wen I bought them. I just stuck them in, and they are the best thing ever by the way. I had to open one last week, after about 6 months it opened no problem. They make it so easy to bleed brakes I'll probably be doing complete fluid changes yearly, like I should.
 
53guy said:
What? I must have misunderstood the question. Not to make your question sound dumb (because it isn't), but your proposition is stating that any thread with metal to metal contact is not air tight. So pretty much any line anywhere in the world with fluid in it is not air tight. I happen to disagree greatly with that. The helicoptors that I fly/work on are not allowed to use any sort of teflon tape or line lock or anything for fear of contaminating the fluid. And many of these lines run pressures higher than 3000psi without leaking or allowing air into the system. So, I don't think that a little bit of pressure from a break bleeder with thread lock or teflon tape on the threads will leak at all. Mine on my Jeep sure don't leak and never have since I installed them when I bought the Jeep in 1999. So I would have to say that your concern that the bleeders not being air tight is unfounded. While bleeding you ask? Same idea. You don't remove the bleeder valves while bleeding conventionally do you? You should only back them out about 1-2 turns, leaving about 4-6 threads still in contact to prevent air from re-entering the system. The Speed Bleeders work the same way, and when backed out a few threads, it allows the brake lines to purge air from them when the brake pedal is pumped by way of the check valve made up of the spring and the BB. Re-tighten them and you're good to go, air free. Also, the concern that the BB might fall out is not out of the realm of possiability, but I've never experienced that happening. Speedbleeder makes a high quality product and I wouldn't think they would have that problem. El-Cheepo's from autozone might, but not name brand ones.
Click to expand...

all the threads you speak of on the helos are set to a torque spec. and are either tapered flanges doing the sealing or tapered threads like in plubing and designed to be air tight. the way the bleader on you brake is set up the threads are designed to only move the bleader in and out and the seal is acheived by way of a tapered flange much like JIC or SAE fluid connectors. the only reason why i brought this up is because i have a vacume bleader and i get air bubbles that pass by the threads while bleading with a suction hose hooked up to the bleader and was just wondering what the speed bleader people did to fix this.
 
ah, ok. I see what you're getting at and I agree. yeah, lol, I'm still at work, so I'll write back later.
 
bj-666 said:
all the threads you speak of on the helos are set to a torque spec. and are either tapered flanges doing the sealing or tapered threads like in plubing and designed to be air tight. the way the bleader on you brake is set up the threads are designed to only move the bleader in and out and the seal is acheived by way of a tapered flange much like JIC or SAE fluid connectors. the only reason why i brought this up is because i have a vacume bleader and i get air bubbles that pass by the threads while bleading with a suction hose hooked up to the bleader and was just wondering what the speed bleader people did to fix this.
Click to expand...
That's exactly why I would never use them. Air does get past the threads when you loosen them up to bleed. I also vacuum bleed, and like mentioned above, there's always plenty of air being pulled past the threads.

Kyung
 
bj-666 said:
i have a vacume bleader and i get air bubbles that pass by the threads while bleading with a suction hose hooked up to the bleader and was just wondering what the speed bleader people did to fix this.
Click to expand...

Here's my easy fix to pulling air past the threads. Take the bleeder out, clean the threads, and then smear the threads with anti-seize. If you don't have anti-seize, grease works fine. It's messy since it will drool brake fuild while you do this, but the bonus is that you won't snap the bleeder off next time because its seized up in the hole. If you don't want to pull the bleeder, you could just smear a blob of goo around the base of the bleeder.
 
That is what I was trying to point to earlier. Thread lock, grease, anti-seize, grease, teflon tape, all work well at sealing the threads. I've found that the grease does work best out of all of them. I use a bit of lithium grease around the threads so they won't get air past them. Now, realize, that if they were already installed and you're just bleeding the air out of they system, you'll need to do like lawsoncl said, put some around the base of the threads so that the air won't leak past. You might see some grease being pulled down the threads, but that's fine, just make sure you put more grease than you think you'll need on it. But back on topic, speed bleeders, even if you don't seal the threads, are 100x better than using conventional bleeder valves. Less mess, less hassel, you can do it by yourself, which in my book is a plus. I hate having to explain to people what to do and then having to do it multiple times because they didn't do it right. Do it your way the first time and you'll save yourself the headache later.
 
87manche said:
the Dorman speedbleeders I bought at advance auto had some grey thread sealant/anti sieze on them wen I bought them. I just stuck them in, and they are the best thing ever by the way. I had to open one last week, after about 6 months it opened no problem. They make it so easy to bleed brakes I'll probably be doing complete fluid changes yearly, like I should.
Click to expand...
Just look for the ones with the grey thread sealant already on them. It looked like grey pipe dope.
 
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