fb40dash5
Junior Member
Mini Bleeders | Motion Pro
I got new calipers for my car, and braided lines for the FZ, so I picked up a couple of these in 8mm and 10mm.
Haven't got the lines yet, but I used them to bleed the calipers on the car yesterday. I don't know if it made it any faster than bleeding with 2 people, but it was much easier and cleaner than I've managed to bleed brakes in the past, and I managed to do it solo. For reference, I work in an auto shop, and have access to about every brake bleed tool you can think of. We have a large Mityvac fluid vac with a brake bleed attachment, a small Mityvac hand pump with a bleed jar, and a Phoenix pressure bleeder. I've used all of them with varying (usually low) success, but they're never as fast as using 2 people, which I usually end up doing to finish.
To be fair, they're not really much more than a small wrench with tubing attached, which you could replicate with, well, a wrench and $2 worth of tubing. The devil's in the details. You can hardly tell from the pic, but the wrench handle part slides up off the hex on the tool, so you can reposition the handle. With a regular wrench and tubing, you've got to be careful not to knock the tubing off the nipple repositioning the wrench, especially with 8mm bleeders. No worry with these, and the tubing nipple captures the handle so it can't slide too far. They fit nice and tight and don't leak fluid, a definite plus with corrosive brake juice. In fact they're a little tighter than I expected, trying to pull it off by the wrench handle might unseat the tubing nipple from the body. I just used the right size wrench to lever the body off, since you really need a regular wrench to crack and retighten the bleeder anyway.
Overall, 4 out of 5. They're a little expensive at $20 a pop, but they're easier to keep track of than pieces of tubing, and easier to use. For the price, I would've liked to see them include a fluid container, but you can buy a cheapo brake bleed kit (like [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Actron-7840-Brake-Bleed-Kit/dp/B0009XQUKM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364478116&sr=8-1&keywords=cp7840"]this[/ame]) at the auto parts store and just stick the tubing onto it. I can't vouch for the "check valve" claim, but if you run the tubing upwards right from the nipple, air bubbles float up, and you can usually just slowly pump the brakes and get all the bubbles out.
I'll update once I've got the lines for the bike, or next time I replace a clutch cylinder... car hydro clutches are a huge PITA to get bled properly most of the time. I'll also try pairing them with the Phoenix, since the adapters in the Phoenix kit tend to blow off and/or leak before the accomplish anything... if they solve that problem, that'll be worth the price alone for me.
I got new calipers for my car, and braided lines for the FZ, so I picked up a couple of these in 8mm and 10mm.
Haven't got the lines yet, but I used them to bleed the calipers on the car yesterday. I don't know if it made it any faster than bleeding with 2 people, but it was much easier and cleaner than I've managed to bleed brakes in the past, and I managed to do it solo. For reference, I work in an auto shop, and have access to about every brake bleed tool you can think of. We have a large Mityvac fluid vac with a brake bleed attachment, a small Mityvac hand pump with a bleed jar, and a Phoenix pressure bleeder. I've used all of them with varying (usually low) success, but they're never as fast as using 2 people, which I usually end up doing to finish.
To be fair, they're not really much more than a small wrench with tubing attached, which you could replicate with, well, a wrench and $2 worth of tubing. The devil's in the details. You can hardly tell from the pic, but the wrench handle part slides up off the hex on the tool, so you can reposition the handle. With a regular wrench and tubing, you've got to be careful not to knock the tubing off the nipple repositioning the wrench, especially with 8mm bleeders. No worry with these, and the tubing nipple captures the handle so it can't slide too far. They fit nice and tight and don't leak fluid, a definite plus with corrosive brake juice. In fact they're a little tighter than I expected, trying to pull it off by the wrench handle might unseat the tubing nipple from the body. I just used the right size wrench to lever the body off, since you really need a regular wrench to crack and retighten the bleeder anyway.
Overall, 4 out of 5. They're a little expensive at $20 a pop, but they're easier to keep track of than pieces of tubing, and easier to use. For the price, I would've liked to see them include a fluid container, but you can buy a cheapo brake bleed kit (like [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Actron-7840-Brake-Bleed-Kit/dp/B0009XQUKM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364478116&sr=8-1&keywords=cp7840"]this[/ame]) at the auto parts store and just stick the tubing onto it. I can't vouch for the "check valve" claim, but if you run the tubing upwards right from the nipple, air bubbles float up, and you can usually just slowly pump the brakes and get all the bubbles out.
I'll update once I've got the lines for the bike, or next time I replace a clutch cylinder... car hydro clutches are a huge PITA to get bled properly most of the time. I'll also try pairing them with the Phoenix, since the adapters in the Phoenix kit tend to blow off and/or leak before the accomplish anything... if they solve that problem, that'll be worth the price alone for me.
