How do you bleed the brakes on a 92 svx?

[wrxsubaru]

I tried to bleed my brakes using the way a chiltons manule say to do it, but now my SVXs brake pedal can go about half the way down before it starts to really work, and it does not have a huge amount of stopping power, it cant get near locking the brakes up, i know it had alot more sopping power before i did it. I had to bleed the brakes becasue i had to take off the brake master cylinder when i was doing the 5spd swap, are you spose to do it another way?

[tcspeer]

You may need to bleed the master cylinder, then rebleed the brakes.

[wrxsubaru]

how do you do that?

[Legacy777]

How are you bleeding the brakes?

 

You most likely have air still in the MC. I suggest bleeding the brakes with the car running to get more power assist to help work the air out. What I do is pump the brakes repeatedly for about 20 times....slowly and firmly.....then open the bleeder valve....close it up, and repeat the process 2-3 times depending on how much air is coming out.

 

and make sure the MC doesn't go dry during bleeding.....

[99obw]

Bleeding the master cylinder first might not be a bad idea, but I would hesitate to direct the bleeding fluid back into the reservoir if the MC is used.

 

With the car off, the pedal should get firm once all of the air is out of the system. Repeat bleeding until the pedal becomes firm with the car off. I have never bled brakes with the engine running, I don't know if it works better or not.

 

Make sure your timing is right if you are doing the two person method such that you close the bleeder before the person pumping releases the pedal. I put a 2x4 under the pedal to keep it from going all the way to the floor. I have the assistant pump the pedal 5 times then hold it down, then I realease the bleeder until I hear the pedal hit the 2x4 and then close it, then signal them to repeat. I do that 10 times for the front and 20 times for the rear. Each rep only takes about 10 seconds. Refill the reservoir every few reps. YMMV

 

I have had good results with a mity-vac brake bleeder, and that way I don't need an assistant. IIRC I take about 8 oz out of each of the fronts and 16 oz out of each of the rears. On the outback it seems to require that much fluid flushed through before it runs clear. It starts out coming out looking like sam adams and ends up looking like coors light.

[Legacy777]

bleeding the MC while it's off the car is near impossible.....at least IMO.

[99obw]

You may be right. I have never bench bled a MC, but I have heard about it quite a bit, so I really don't know one way or the other.

 

http://www.vtr.org/maintain/brake-bench-bleeding.html

 

I assume the procedure would be similar with the MC mounted on the car.

[Legacy777]

see.....you can do the procedure on the site......I see no problems with that....the hard part not introducing air into the MC when connecting the lines to the MC.....it's damn near impossible....plus with fluid in there.....you make an unbelievable mess.

 

Another method is to crack the line at the MC and pump the brake pedal and in theory any air will escape where it's cracked.....

 

I've tried both ways, they end up making a huge mess, and don't successfully bleed the system......I've had better luck with my way.

[tcspeer]

I have only bleed one Master cyclinder it was for Chev. Haynes has a Techbook, just for brakes it is called Brake Manual. It has detailed info. on doing this. If master cyclinder is off put in vise. You will need to get a pair of master cylinder bleeder tubes from auto store hook them up and run them into top of reservoir fill it with fluild and push piston on master cyclinder with large screwdriver until you have no more bubbles. After looking at this again in my brake manual it says this is the best way to get air out before installing M.C. of course you will still have to bleed brakes. It may be possible to get all of the air out just by repeated bleeding of brakes the other way. I would sure try that before taking master cyclinder back off.