Brake Bleeding

[pm26]

Today I bled the brakes on my truck for the first time to replace the brake fluid. I have done this procedure many times on all kinds of vehicles, but this truck is a genuine PITA. First, they had to use midget bleeder screws on the wheel cylinders in the back to make is really difficult to slip an 8mm wrench over the screws once bleeder line is attached.

 

The front bleeder screws are larger (10 mm wrench needed here), but they are too close to the wheels, so that bleeding front brakes with wheels on is not very easy.

 

This truck takes a ton of brake fluid - even 1 quart was not enough to replace all of it. And bleeding takes a long time compared to a conventional car.

[Outbacker]

This is one of the things that really cheeses me off, and that is the vehicle manufactures of trucks are not making these things easy to work on. Would it be that difficult to make all the bleed screws the same size? And in a easily accessible location with minimal interference items? I know why they do it: job protection. A majority of people will look at the job and end of taking it in to the service dopes to get done. Simple jobs are more and more complex, to the point the back yard mechanic cannot work on them. End of rant, but I do feel your pain.

[pennzoil29]

This is one of the things that really cheeses me off, and that is the vehicle manufactures of trucks are not making these things easy to work on. Would it be that difficult to make all the bleed screws the same size? And in a easily accessible location with minimal interference items? I know why they do it: job protection. A majority of people will look at the job and end of taking it in to the service dopes to get done. Simple jobs are more and more complex, to the point the back yard mechanic cannot work on them. End of rant, but I do feel your pain.

 

+1 Some of the crap they do is just insane. The days of the simple back yard mechanic are far and in between. Sometimes finding myself scratching my head with one hand, and my ass with the other.

[Zembonez]

You can bleed the brakes on a truck? I can honestly say I have never cracked a bleeder in my 25 years of GM trucks!

[pm26]

Well, compared to replacing the timing belt and water pump, and removing the intake manifold and cleaning out the EGR passages from carbon on my 99 Mazda 626 V6, bleeding the brakes on this truck was actually a piece of cake.

 

But, as far as bleeding the brakes goes, this one was the most awkward so far.