I just bought a 2001 ultra classic. how do you do a brake flush? any special tools needed?
thanks

 

Hey, I recently bought an 2001 Electra Glide about a month ago and just love it! You can do a forum search for Break fluid flush. I just did my front breakes. I bought a break bleeder at Advance Auto (cheap). It's a plastic bottle with clear hose. You attach to your bleeder screw and take the cap off you master cylinder. Pump the brakes, hold and loosen bleeder screw until brake hande hit handle bar and hold it there and tyighten bleeder and redo until fluid is clear. Keep adding fluid to the master cylinder. There are many ways to do it and I'm sure someon where chime in here.

How do you like your new ride? Miles?

 

I just did a drain and replace on my Street Glide. I just drained the system from the bleeder, refilled it at the mater cylinder and bled the brakes. There are other ways to do it if you have a vacuum system like a Mity Vac but, you don't have to have anything special besides a helper.

 

Or you can use these...
https://www.speedbleeder.com/

 

I have a silly question. Why do we need replace brake fluid? I have never done it in any car I have owned. I wouldn't think there's that much heat, they are out in the open and you are not stoping that much weight in comparison to a car

 

DOT 3 and 4 absorb moisture over time.

 

As someone else mentioned, brake fluid absorbs water even if the system is sealed. The water causes corrosion of the system such as the inside bores of the caliper pistons and on the pistons themselves. This corrosion can cause the pistons to stick or leaks around the piston seals.

If the pistons stick, they may not retract and this will cause constant contact with the brake pads against the rotors, which can cause premature wear. I've seen a car with a stuck piston and one pad was worn down to the metal while the other pad in the same caliper looked almost new. In the worst case, the piston may stick retracted and not provide adequate braking when applied.

Another possibility is that the accumulated water can vaporize when the brakes are used and convert to steam. Steam does not compress as well as brake fluid and can cause the brakes to fail (not work) when applied. True this is more of an issue when the brakes are used aggressively such as in racing conditions, when pulling a trailer, or when used repeatedly and hard such as when coming down a long grade, but I would not trust it not to happen in everyday use, especially if the brakes have not been flushed in long time. There may be a lot of water accumulated in the system and the more water, the more likely to have problems.

I did a quick internet search and found a number of sites discussing the merits of routine brake fluid flushing. They all said it was a good idea and something that should be done as part of routine maintenance of a vehicle.

I also saw some sites say that vehicles with silicone fluid did not need to be flushed and some that said they did. If I had a bike with silicone fluid, I think I'd still consider flushing it periodically.

If the brakes on your vehicles have not been flushed in a while, I'd seriously recommend you have it done soon. The same issues mentioned above can also occur in a car or truck. Flushing the brakes is a lot easier and less expensive than buying or rebuilding the calipers and rotors, not to mention the safety issue.

The car I have now has brake fluid flushing on the maintenance schedule just the same as changing oil and other maintenance items. You might want to see if you can find a maintenance schedule for your vehicles and see if if suggests flushing the fluid. Even if it doesn't, I'd still have it done.

From my experience, I've found a lot of people that will have oil changes performed but ignore other maintenance such as brake fluid and coolant flushes until they have major issues. I've always found preventative maintenance to be less expensive than repairs.

 

Its an easy job. Just by loosin the bolt, the oil starts coming out, but I used the mity-vac,


BEWARE- Brake Fluid will really screw up your pint. Cover all your painted surfaces any where even near the master cylinder. Including your wheels.

 

In addition to the responses on here, there are a number of threads on this forum discussing various methods of flushing brake fluid. Basically they all involve opening the bleed screw on the calipers and pulling the brake lever or pushing the brake pedal to force out the old fluid and then refilling the reservoir with fresh fluid. The procedure is a little more involved than that, but those are the basics.

If your bike had type 3 or 4 fluid, keep in mind that this fluid will react to painted surfaces and may even remove or permanently damage the paint. Be careful to protect all surfaces with rags or towels in case you spill any fluid.

FL-kruzen describes the standard pump/open/bleed/close/release method. This works but requires you to pump the brakes and work the bleeder screw at the same time. Depending on the length of your arms, you may need two people to do this. It does work though.

Some people like the vacuum devices that pull the fluid out of the bleeder valve. I've tried a couple of these and never got them to work very well. My main problem was that they would pull air from around the threads of the bleeder valve and I could not tell if the air was coming from there or from the system.

I've found that Speed Bleeders work the best for me. These are replacement bleeder valves that include a one-way valve. That means you remove the factory bleeder valves and install the Speed Bleeders. You will lose a few drops of brake fluid doing this, depending on how quickly you can make the switch.

Once installed, you attach a hose to the Speed Bleeders and put the other end of the hose in to a collection bottle or can. Open the Speed Bleeders about a quarter turn and just pump the brakes as many times as you want until clean fresh fluid comes out and you do not see any air bubbles. While doing this, you want to ensure the master cylinder reservoir stays full so you do not introduce any air into the system. Once you feel the system has been throughly flushed, just ensure the reservoir levels are correct, put the caps back on, and retighten the Speed Bleeders.

You can leave the Speed Bleeders on the bike so they will be there for the next use. You do not have to take them off and on each time.

Speed Bleeders also sells a very nice collection bag that can be used to collect the brake fluid while flushing. It can be emptied and reused also.

Hope this helps.

 

There is a great article on brakes, including changing the fluid, in this months "American Iron Magazine".