the perfect bleeder

[NHVmaxpower]

My wife asked if I could use her Food Saver vacuum sealer for anything she was going to throw it away. He'll ya the perfect bleeder for brakes,clutch. Just hook up hose to bleeder from vacume hit the on switch and wola perfect bleeder in seconds. So if your wife has one she don't use grab it works awesome.

 

[ZackDaniels]

Heh that's clever... I'd be a little worried about blowing seals or something, don't those things have quite a lot of pressure?

 

[Fire-medic]

I wonder if you could use one of those '1-man brake bleeder hoses' which have a 1-way valve on them, and hook that to a t-fitting where the head of the t is connected to a compressor line, and the 1-way valve hose is connected to the vertical segment? I don't know if the venturi effect would pull fluid past the 1-way valve or the hose pressure would just keep the valve shut?

 

[Redbone]

Ah ha, good thinking NHV! probably works along the same lines as this professional ($$$) jobbie:
this professional jobbie
For your setup you would want to add a inline / vacumn container to catch the fluid, or you can check out what this guy did over on Garage Journal:
"For years I have been bleeding brakes with my little Hand vacuum pump, or the help of another foot to pump. Well I decided to change that. So after a little research and a little fabrication this is my result. I didn't want to put a lot of $ into it. But I did want it to be very functional. So for a basic description it's using a plain old $20 tire inflator which was modified with some epoxy and a 1\4" hose barb to cover the intake of the inflator pump. Then some plain old 1\4" ID rubber hose, a couple of hose barb fittings. Then finally a "watertight" container I found at my local wally world in the camping accessories. The inflator is not permanently modified and still works perfectly. I did put one of the included straight through nozzles in the inflator tire valve end to permit the air exhausting from the inflator outlet hose. Another idea is to cut the whole valve off and leave the hose bare. But that would permanently modify the inflator. My hand vacuum is connected by hose and Tee to view vacuum, also not permanently modified. And finally the container which may need modification, but esentially works. One barb epoxied into the top cover, which actually needs to get swapped for a screw in type fitting or tire valve drilled out to 1\4". The other line is simply 1\4" brake line with an angle cut on the bottom to permit flow while sitting on bottom of container. Then epoxied through container cover with hose attached with a clamp to tighten the fit. The brake line needs to be changed to run through the center of a drilled out screw in tire valve etc, because of vacuum leaks after a while through the epoxy in the lid. The container might need to be switched at some point to a stronger one because the top actually flexes in a fair amount at full vacuum which appears to be about 23". The setup actually works faster than I thought it would due to the larger container. And it has a fairly large capacity with the container. But its pulling vacuum almost immediately and can easily maintain a strong vacuum while bleeding lines etc. I have started thinking of all kinds of uses for this now such as evacuating floor jack oil, differential fluid changes, brake \clutch bleeding, P\S fluid changes. I think I will be using it much more now and maybe you can think of more ideas or improvements for the idea."

Here are some supporting pictures of the setup:


Here is a way to make a vacumn bottle if you already have a pump like NHV does:


"Most any jar can be used; the one shown is an old spaghetti sauce jar with drilled holes in the lid and some brass fittings in it. Use rubber washers to get a tight seal. Using a canning jar like made by Ball or Mason will work well; they have a lid insert with a rubber seal."

 

[CaptainKyle]

Ah ha, good thinking NHV! probably works along the same lines as this professional ($$$) jobbie:
this professional jobbie
For your setup you would want to add a inline / vacumn container to catch the fluid, or you can check out what this guy did over on Garage Journal:
"For years I have been bleeding brakes with my little Hand vacuum pump, or the help of another foot to pump. Well I decided to change that. So after a little research and a little fabrication this is my result. I didn't want to put a lot of $ into it. But I did want it to be very functional. So for a basic description it's using a plain old $20 tire inflator which was modified with some epoxy and a 1\4" hose barb to cover the intake of the inflator pump. Then some plain old 1\4" ID rubber hose, a couple of hose barb fittings. Then finally a "watertight" container I found at my local wally world in the camping accessories. The inflator is not permanently modified and still works perfectly. I did put one of the included straight through nozzles in the inflator tire valve end to permit the air exhausting from the inflator outlet hose. Another idea is to cut the whole valve off and leave the hose bare. But that would permanently modify the inflator. My hand vacuum is connected by hose and Tee to view vacuum, also not permanently modified. And finally the container which may need modification, but esentially works. One barb epoxied into the top cover, which actually needs to get swapped for a screw in type fitting or tire valve drilled out to 1\4". The other line is simply 1\4" brake line with an angle cut on the bottom to permit flow while sitting on bottom of container. Then epoxied through container cover with hose attached with a clamp to tighten the fit. The brake line needs to be changed to run through the center of a drilled out screw in tire valve etc, because of vacuum leaks after a while through the epoxy in the lid. The container might need to be switched at some point to a stronger one because the top actually flexes in a fair amount at full vacuum which appears to be about 23". The setup actually works faster than I thought it would due to the larger container. And it has a fairly large capacity with the container. But its pulling vacuum almost immediately and can easily maintain a strong vacuum while bleeding lines etc. I have started thinking of all kinds of uses for this now such as evacuating floor jack oil, differential fluid changes, brake \clutch bleeding, P\S fluid changes. I think I will be using it much more now and maybe you can think of more ideas or improvements for the idea."

Here are some supporting pictures of the setup:
View attachment 33382 View attachment 33383

Here is a way to make a vacumn bottle if you already have a pump like NHV does:
View attachment 33385 View attachment 33384

"Most any jar can be used; the one shown is an old spaghetti sauce jar with drilled holes in the lid and some brass fittings in it. Use rubber washers to get a tight seal. Using a canning jar like made by Ball or Mason will work well; they have a lid insert with a rubber seal."

The one I use is almost like this. It deffinately makes it nice if you do it a lot. I never have problems getting clutch's etc bled out.

 

[ninjaneer]

i use a similar approach as that of the Cap, but instead i put one end of a shop vac hose and the outlet end of the bleeder tube through the top of the lid

 

[schudaddie]

even though I have a "mightyvac" hand bleeder I've found that doing it backwards is probably the easiest when I did my clutch rebuild. A small plastic bottle with a nipple and hose and one of those snot sucker bulbs for babies.
Just draw most of the fluid from the reservoir with the sucker bulb then open the bleeder and squeeze the fluid from the bottle. It does help to have someone watch the reservoir so you don't overflow it.
later, bill