Bleeding Brakes

[elan_fan]

Hey All,
I want to bleed my brakes at the weekend I'll have to do it on my own and will probably use one of those ezebleed chaps. Any advice? Start at back and work forward?
Thanks
Mark

[steveww]

Start at the wheel the greatest distance (by pipe work) away from the master cylinder. For RHD this is the Left Rear wheel. Then work your way towards the master cylinder. Make sure the master cylinder does not run out of fluid as you bleed or you will have to start whole process again.

[elanman3]

I used one of those ezebleed kits. The only problem was that master cylinder caps provided with the kit don't fit the Elan Master Cylinder. I phoned ezebleed and they weren't very helpful. You have two choices, 1) buy a MC cap from Christoper Neil or one of the other suppliers, or 2) make up a cap yourself. I took the second option. I made a steel plate drilled and tapped in the centre for the ezebleed hose and two holes at the edge to take some threaded bar. The threaded bar pasted down the outside of the MC to another steel plate underneath the MC. I then placed some gasket rubber between the top plate and the MC and tightened the bolts. Once the MC was sealed it worked a treat.

[elan_fan]

Thanks for the tip i havent actually got an ezeebleed so i might save my money and make something up

Mark

[steveww]

I have a one-way valve thingy that goes on to the wheel cylinder nipple. It was only a few quid from my local parts store. This allows you to hook up the valve and pump the break pedal yourself. Works every time for me

[pereirac]

The "one way thingy" worked for me. I used to have a Ezebleed, but 9 time out of 10 when I used it I ended up with the equivalent of a can of brake fluid all over the engine bay!!

[dmreeceuk]

bleeding is easy if you get a long lengh of clear plastic tube from the DIY store and send it high over the windsceen from the nipple and clip it with a clothes peg below the level of the brake fluid in the cylinder. Then pump and pump until you see no bubbles through the windscreen. Then close the nipple. Start from the rear furthest from the cylinder. And keep a g- clamp handy to close the tube when you move from wheel to wheel.

Easy, you can do it yourself and rock hard brakes.

Dave

[Frank Howard]

When trying to determine the wheel that is farthest from the master cylinder, don't assume it is the on the opposite corner of the car. When my car was built, the factory ran the tandem brake lines from the brakes to the right side of the engine compartment as you would for a right hand steering car, but my car is a left hand steering car. They extended two more lines from the right side over the vacumn tank part of the frame in front of the motor (a total of three lines here) to the left side in order to connect up with the left hand tandem MC. So the farthest wheel from my left hand MC was actually the rear left, the second furthest was the front left, and the closest was actually the front right. This arrangement proved to be too complicated for bleeding the brakes so I decided to reroute the lines. By the time I was done, I had removed 13 feet of brake line from the car! Who says Chapman cared about adding lightness?

Frank Howard
'71 S4 SE
Minnesota

[type36lotus]

I replaced all my bleed screws with speed bleeders. They are simply bleed screws with a check valve. Loosen one screw, pump a few times, close, move to the next wheel. Nothing to lose, nothing else to buy, no brake fluid all over the engine bay (my experience with eze-bleed). I even put one on my clutch slave. You will need 3/8 - 24 long for your Elan, be sure they are the LONG ones. The short version will work for the clutch.