Cheap brake bleading solution

[Brent27]

Wanted to share a bit of a tip on bleading brakes I stumbled on.

Over the weekend I decided to upgrade my brake lines to stainless steel. After watching some how to videos I saw that you can use a turkey baster to suck out the brake fluid out of the reservoir to save a bit of time and cut down the mess a bit and then continue to bleed the brakes the old fashioned way. I wanted to try this first and if it sucked then I'd invest in something like a MidiVac.

I went to Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up a baster and instead I picked up a flavor injector syringe for about 5 bucks that came with two needles. I used it to pull the fluid out of the reservoir but also the bleeder hose fit perfectly at the end of the syringe (without the needles installed). The syringe pulled almost all of the fluid out of the lines. Also, when bleeding the brakes after installing the new lines I used the syringe to pull the air out of the system and get a big head start. After that I used the old fashioned method to complete the brake bleading. Took about 5-10 minutes from start to finish to get a good lever.

Thought I'd share - hopefully it helps someone. I'll see if I can find a link to the injector and add it to this post.

 

[Brent27]

I'll have to check the packaging when I get home but I think this is what I used:
Flavor Injector - BedBathandBeyond.com

 

[Final Impact]

Good call. Syringes work great for lots of tasks like that. Because the reservoir is so small they work much better than turkey basters.
Commercial/industrial non medical are cheap and you can fit any tip size you like with the Luer Lock Twist.

Strange name but duda energy sells them on amazon with 15gauge blunt tip. Unlike medical ones petroleum doesn't swell the plunger. I oil my chain and cables with them.

 

[Scott_Thomas]

I'll have to check the packaging when I get home but I think this is what I used:
Flavor Injector - BedBathandBeyond.com

Good tip, one of the few mods I haven't done. I'm thinking of doing my brakes over winter or early spring. Still warm enough here in PA to ride a little bit. Hard to believe this close to Christmas. Was in the 60's the past few days.

 

[Brent27]

Good tip, one of the few mods I haven't done. I'm thinking of doing my brakes over winter or early spring. Still warm enough here in PA to ride a little bit. Hard to believe this close to Christmas. Was in the 60's the past few days.

That was my plan too - have the brake lines as an over winter project but with the weather as nice as it has been here in Ohio and due to impatience I took care of it on a Saturday. That also gave me a bit of riding time with the new lines to check how they work and get used to them.

It only took me an hour or two and I've never done it before. Very easy. If you need to watch a video I watched a ton from Sportbike Track Gear. They showed every detail on multiple bikes. The FZ09 vid has similar routing but the others were helpful too. I also ended up getting the lines from them too (Spiegler) as they were the cheapest along with they throw in brake fluid and cleaner for free which saved a few more bucks.

If you get the Spiegler lines they also show how to twist the connections with the provided tools in the kit. I don't have a vice but one of the vids show how to do it with vice grips. Worked perfectly fine.