Manky's Pop.

[Baychimp]

Nothing, nothing at all.

[panthershaun]

looking good sir, think of me when you are enjoying yourself in Holland and I'm at a wedding in Kent 

[Manky Monkey]

  no guarantee we'll get there yet Shaun, in the Pop at least. If it looks like it's not gonna be ready in time I'll change the ferry booking & we'll just have to go in my Fiesta, but obviously it won' t be the same.
Having trouble with my laptop at the moment so I'm posting from my phone & haven't figured out how to reduce phone photos yet. So nothing to show you, but the bulkhead's finally green. A little wobbly in certain lights, but not bad.
I bought a Sealey pressure bleeder for the brakes today, which runs from an airline & draws the fluid through from the bleed nipples. I've been advised to keep the pressure as low as possible to avoid blowing all the seals. We'll have a go with that tomorrow.
The front of the chassis needs painting while I can reach it -then it's engine fitting time, which I'm really not looking forward to, but hey, what could possibly go wrong?!

[Olds]

Here you go.
Wish I could help with the engine but I'm laid up at the mo.

[Manky Monkey]

Thanks Dave. We may need you to do an electrical check if we get everything hooked back up, so I don't want to break you any more than you already are 
Get well soon matey.

[Manky Monkey]

Nice to see you today Dave. Had a go with the brake bleeding gizmo today. The instructions are really vague -it operates by airline pressure, drawing fluid through the bleed nipples, but we're not sure if the bottle on it should be filled with fluid or not. A slightly more pressing problem is the leaking bulkhead pipe unions. I think the flares on the pipes are wrong - pumping the brake pedal squirted a jet of fluid 6 feet across the workshop. Hopefully easily fixed tomorrow.

[Olds]

Hope you didn't get any on that nice new paint.
Clarke ones say a minimum of 70 psi airline pressure and Sealey recon on 90 psi. Not sure what make you have but it might be worth checking online, being as you say that the instructions are vague.
As you say the pipes should be easy to fix.

[Manky Monkey]

Ours is a Sealey one, which is handy cos I'm pretty silly myself. Just found an instructional video on YooToob but don't know how to cut & paste links via my phone. 90 - 120 psi. Take cap off reservoir, attach pipe to bleed nipple, pull trigger to start vacuum, (the unit in the video had a clip to hold the trigger down which ours doesn't have), open bleed nipple, top up reservoir as required. Easy.
Yup, fluid all over the painted bulkhead but it's 2 pack & Mr Loon says washing it down with water is enough to remove it without damage. Seems fine.

[morrag]

Why do you need such a gizmo to bleed what appears to be a fairly straight forward braking system Mr.M ? Morrag

[Manky Monkey]

We've got a dual circuit remote servo mounted up underneath the dashboard cos there wasn't anywhere else to put it. The master cylinder's under the floor so has to push the fluid 3 feet uphill. With Mr Kapri's invaluable assistance, we had to fit an oversize master cylinder & residual valves to get it to work well enough for the SVA test. All 4 corners as well as the bulkhead pipework have been disconnected at one time or another over the past year, so the system's dry & needs a proper re-bleed. If the vacuum thingy works it should make it a much simpler job.

[hunter]

Andy,You don't need any fluid in the pot to start,
My mate has his own garage workshop and has used one for years,
He runs his compressor at about 120psi,Not that i think it's that important as i have borrowed it and used it on a small coppresser running about 70psi,gone are the days of pumping pedals opening and closing nipples theses things are so simple,
So long as all your joints are good,But of course this applies to any method.

[Manky Monkey]

The dual circuit remote servo's the bit that seems to cause problems. There's also 2 residual valves & a one way valve in there.
Pouring rain here this morning, so it was lunchtime before I could do anything. I re-made the 2 leaking brake lines, using the flaring tool held in the vice as it should be, with much better results. Fitted them & they seem to be leak free so time to try the bleeding gizmo.
I started at the highest point in the system - the 2 bleed nipples on the servo under the dash, which are a bugger to get to. Much cursing later I had the pipe in place, started the vacuum & opened the nipple. Hmm, not the rush of fluid I'd expected, but a steady dribble. I alternated between the 2 bleed points on the servo, but after an hour or so hadn't made much progress - maybe there's just a lot of air in the system or it's drawing air back in, (the servo nipples are quite loose in their threads when they're open).
At that point Mr Loon arrived so we went round the 4 wheels. Pumping the pedal while the pump's running seemed to help draw the fluid through. With almost a litre of fluid collected in the container, we've now got about half the pedal pressure we should have. Loon had to head home again so we'll carry on tomorrow.
I also painted the front of the chassis & the axle & radius arms with a couple of coats of etch primer.
No photos I'm afraid cos I'm still posting from my phone, but hopefully some progress to report tomorrow. Staying positive for the Holland trip. 

[Olds]

A little PTFE plumbers tape on the bleed nipple threads should help the vacuum bleeding. Just make sure the nipples can be fully seated.

[Manky Monkey]

I've got a bottle of thread sealant for use on brake fittings, (a liquid that dries to seal joints on contact with air), but didn't want to try it while constantly opening & closing the nipple. Hopefully another go tomorrow will get it sorted.

[terry t]

That type of brake bleeding kit is ok for modern motors not to good on older ones. why didn't you get the pressure type one like we used before Andy