Bleeding brakes?

[pete-blen]

Have just put a set of braided lines on my XT660R...
rear brake bleed with no probs.... can't get the front
to bleed ..it would seem the air don't want to travel
down to the the caliper.. are there any tricks ?..
In the passed I have removed the caliper.. held it above
the master cylinder... But its not so easy on the XT..

Any Ideas ?

[cowboyz]

bleed the top banjo first

[FJRider]

Lift the front end up onto a trailer/ute deck ...

[erik]

close the bleed nipple and push the pistons back into the caliper to force the fluid/bubbles back into the reservoir?

[pete-blen]

thanks for the ideas...
I got it....
Made a one way/non return valve to fit in the
caliper bleed nipple...
Used a old tube , cut the valve steam out
put a valve in it...used a bit of tube to connect it
to the bleed nipple...
Then just pumped the brake lever like a crazy idiot...
2 res of fluid.. then nip the nipplle up a few pumps...
Woohoo..good to go..

[Laava]

I have been trying everything to get my brakes to work. As a last resort I am going to try this;
1 Tying the lever back overnight

One way to rid any last remaining air from the system is to tie back the lever over night. Firstly remove the master cylinder reservoir cover BUT then balance it back on top of where it should be fitted so that moisture in the air does not contaminate the system overnight. Then pull the lever in as hard as possible and cable tie it in the ON position (brake lever pulled right back to the bars). Leave this overnight and in the morning release the lever and your brakes should feel fantastic - basically the back pressure caused by tying the lever back overnight will have forced any last remaining air out of the system out to the atmousphere and leave you with sharp brakes the next day. Replace the reservoir cap correctly and you are ready to ride.

Although I cannot for the life of me see how the trapped air is going to get out?
My experience has been; get a 500ml bottle of brake fluid, spill 200mls of it on the floor in patches, fill the reservoir with brake fluid, using some tools or sharp edges remove some chunks of skin from knuckles, smear brake fluid over raw wounds, pump brake lever until brake fluid spurts from somewhere, remove faulty something and remedy, repeat furious pumping until fluid spurts somewhere else, repeat process, suddenly spot that you have left fluid for too long on your new paint, remove fluid and curse everything, finally get system pumping fluid until you have no air bubbles, wonder why it is still incredibly spongy, go to fridge and get beer draining contents, debate going back to garage or fridge.
n.b. Fridge is the best option at this stage!