Flare brake lines? (2023 Update)

Right. As I said, the problem appeared only when I was trying to refill a spliced line and I couldn't tell if the bubbles meant I needed to keep flushing my limited supply of genuine Honda brake fluid through. That's when I woke up the neighbor and asked for help pushing the pedal, which blew out the residual air in a different line that was making the pedal very soft.

Today I asked about bleeding at the dealership while stocking up on more fluid. They always have someone to pump the pedal. They also gave me a trade-in value. At least the 15-year-old car is worth something to me. Maybe I scared it into behaving for a while.

-jsw

Amen.

HEARTBREAKING! Dad and I refurbed Mom's 64-1/2 with the 289 and he got $6k for it in 1989, before it was a true classic. He surprised me by handing me ten Benjies, too. "Thanks for the help!" I had done it out of love, but didn't turn down the money. It would have hurt his feelings. ;)

What? You had a mechanical failure and didn't deserve a ticket. I hope they wrote it off after you showed them that the seller had screwed up.

The rusty spot failed when I hit the brakes harder than usual while driving the car onto ramps in my driveway to inspect the exhaust. I was feeling my way up to just barely reaching the top from traction + momentum since I can't see it very well from the seat, and stopped with the axle balanced over the ridge between the slope and the wheel depression on top. That failure could have been worse in so many ways.

Now I've paid attention to the pedal pressure for normal traffic stopping, the pressure to trigger the ABS, and how much harder I can push when stopped, which doesn't set off the ABS.

Has anyone seen short jackstands with a screw adjustment for height that are rated for cars versus campers? When I put it on four jackstands to pull the tires and repeatedly bleed the brakes only three made contact.

A finely adjustable stand would help with cutting off long heavy stock on the horizontal bandsaw too. Currently I hang the beam from a tripod and winch it into line with the saw table top.

-jsw

I still haven't gotten over the loss of Radio Row in NYC in the 1960s, which they tore down to build the World Trade Center. There were dozens of surplus and new electronics shops there, employing thousands of people. I bought ARC-5 transmitters there for $5 - $10 each.

Canal Street is just a ghost of the old Radio Row.

Maybe a Screw Jack?

You need to go to some old farm auctions. There used to be a whole bunch of nice mechanical jacks years ago. I've got several that have filled a niche from time-to-time. You can still buy some new but you'll pay a lot more...

On 3/20/2015 7:27 AM, Jim Wilkins wrote: ...

"Point of order": this is RCM, your question should be about making such, or modifying an existing one . Seriously - you only need one finely adjustable stand. And it just needs to keep the car steady - the other 3 can carry the load. So, put an upright bolt into the top of one of your stands & you're done. Bob

I could, and did think about it, or I could support the lighter rear with a single centered floor jack. But I'm not going to remove the tires and crawl underneath with such support.

-jsw

I think minimum cost now is $562 for any moving violation, isn't it? That's what commuter lane tickets cost in the Bay Area now, according to their signs on the freeway.

Egad! I should think a 4-bore would take care of it.

Fun!

Gunner Asch on Fri, 20 Mar 2015 16:25:57 -0700 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

Is this because of something you did in a past lifetime? B-)

I had two buses (interurban types, not VW) fall off the jacks while I was under them. On the second one, I heard the "creak" and rolled out from under it, as the stand on the far side compressed the cobble stone enough to get past CG. "Fall down, bounce on shocks." Missed me, I was 21 and nie invulnerable.

-- pyotr filipivich "With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone."

Larry Jaques on Mon, 16 Mar 2015

But I have one in my small town.

-- pyotr filipivich "With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone."

I can become too distracted by diagnosing the problem or having to communicate intelligibly with a helper to remember to double-check that the emergency brakes are on and the opposite corner wheel chocked on both sides. It's easy to forget that Park doesn't restrain the vehicle when one drive wheel lifts off the ground.

I've never needed to remove all four tires at once until I had to bleed the entire brake system.

-jsw

This is A Good Thing(tm)!

The two-person bleed procedure pressurizes the brake lines and blows crud out of them. A one-person vacuum bleed is also possible, using atmospheric pressure at the master cylinder and pulling a vacuum at the bleed port with a "Mityvac" brand hand pump. The problem there, is that the (loose) bleed valve can fill the little waste bottle with brake fluid from the lines, or with air from the lines, or with air that leaks past the threads of the valve. Even if air doesn't get into the brake lines, there's no way to know when the bleed is good enough, unless you smear some sealant around the valve threads.

I've never seen a professional mechanic put sealer on a bleeder thread.. I've never put sealer on a bleader screw.. I have a little battery operated electric vacuum bleeder. I have a mighti-vac. I virtually never use them for bleeding brakes. So much easier to gravity/pump bleed. The pressure bleeder was the cat's meow back when I was at the dealership. Clamp the fitting on the master, dial up the pressure on the tank, open the bleeder 'till the bubbles stop, Close the screw. repeat on the other 3 lines. It wasn't foolproof. Couldn't pressure bleed a '60's Vauxhaul with twin leading shoe brakes while sitting level. Reverse bleeding is the "secret weapon" in cases like that. Standing the car on it's nose overnight works too. Don't want to have to do that too often!!. (line went into the "top" cyl. with a jumper line from the top cyl to the bottom cyl, and the bleeder on the bottom of the bottom cyl, of all places!!!)

Gunner Asch on Sat, 21 Mar 2015 01:43:35 -0700 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

All I can say is "Lord have mercy."

tschus pyotr

Gott hilfen und wir leben. (God willing,and we live.)

"Jim Wilkins" on Sat, 21 Mar 2015 07:39:51

-0400 typed >> Gunner Asch >>>>"Bob Engelhardt" wrote:

I must not be that "good" - I seem to start with "handbrakes, chocks, jack stands ... now what is the problem?"

Hmm, I don't recall ... oh wait (it has been a few years) - the reason I don't recall any difficulty with that, was I only did that at The Shop, and we had a hoist. Which had its own set of hazard issues.

-- pyotr filipivich "With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone."

Even high-hour pilots can become distracted from their habituated routine by problems and fly into the ground, that's one of the reasons for the Cockpit Voice Recorder and the Stall and PULL UP! warnings. They have this reminder of their priorities: "Aviate, Navigate, Communicate"

We considered the effect on situational awareness while developing advanced aviation electronic aids for the FAA at Mitre. (I just listened.)

The Red Baron died from a dumb mistake, and I'm not immune.

-jsw

You were nigh dead/maimed, too.

Exactly. ? With the exception of putting vehicles on the rack (hoist), which have to be rolled to fit, every single vehicle I exit has the emergency brake set every single time. Dad taught that to me at a very, very early age. Get in the car, put the seat belt on and remove the emergency brake. Get out of the car, set the brake and remove the belt. It's automatic. USAA doubles my medical coverage amounts in my insurance if I ensure that everyone is buckled up, too.

I always work on the flat; won't go under a car on a hill. But I don't always have chocks. I do demand a jack stand, plus the jack as a backup, whenever I'm under a vehicle. I've seen local people lose legs to cars falling off jacks and I swore I'd never become one of the casualties to that simple mistake. If jack stands aren't available, I stack concrete blocks and tubafores up until it's safe to crawl under.

I never removed the wheels while adjusting or bleeding brakes, either. Early on, with drum brakes in the rear, if you removed the wheels, the drum could work its way off while bleeding the other wheel cylinders, and that created an even worse mess when you popped a wheel cylinder and got brake fluid all over the new shoes, backing plate, hardware...