Difficulty bleeding brakes

[wikkid]

I pulled off the rear wheels today to check out the brakes and bleed out the old fluid, since it was going to be up on stands anyway to fit my new fuel pump.
I have an Actron vacuum type brake bleeder, which is a perfectly good tool, when you can get a good vacuum seal on the bleeder nipple.

The bleeder's connections were all tight, and held a good vacuum against my finger when I plugged the bleeder line. I couldn't get the line to seal well onto the bleed nipples, though, no matter what I tried. I took off the bleeder screw, greased the threads, greased around the base of the screw, around the bleeder hose connected to the bleed screw, all to no avail. It just burbled up air bubbles into the bleed tube, and I was not able to get any fluid to pull all the way to the pump's fluid reservoir.

I don't use the Actron black nipple fittings, since they are even worse at getting a seal onto the nipple. I just hook the hose up directly to the nipple, and it seems to work, at least on motorcycles.

The hose is a good, tight fit onto the fiat nipple, but it does seem that the bleed screw feels loose as soon as I loosen it a tiny bit to try to get a bit of fluid to draw out.

Could others with better experience with Fiat brake bleeding offer any helpful hints?

[mdrburchette]

Is your rear axle supported? It needs to be to keep the brake compensator from shutting off the fluid to the rear brakes.

[wikkid]

Is your rear axle supported? It needs to be to keep the brake compensator from shutting off the fluid to the rear brakes.

Denise, you're the best. I wish folks on this forum had written, or at least edited the shop manual!!!

I was trying to bleed the rear (first, logically), while the rear end was up in the air for me to work on fuel pump and filters. It was all logical, or so I thought, since the manual neglects to mention the little issue of the compensator....

I'll get back onto it soon. First, to figure out why I can almost get it started, but something in the FI system is not doing what it should. That's for Another Thread.

[mdrburchette]

Glad I could assist. I don't use any bleeding devices. Gravity bleeding does just fine by me.

[wikkid]

I just had this for my one-man operations on motorcycles. It's true, though, that the collection jar is way too small, so I may "get creative."