My bike is over 5 years old so it was way overdue for a brake fluid flush. This is for NON-ABS!!!!!

I did front n rear in 30 painless minutes. Here's how.
I bought a $30.00 brake vacuum bleeder kit from Harbor Freight.
I'm not a big fan of the quality of some stuff of theirs but when you use a tool once every 5 years to do a job.....this brake bleeder kit was perfect.

It came with everything. 14 piece set.

The procedure:
Attach the brake bleeder hose to the caliper nipple ( book says do left side first for those with front dual calipers)

Take off your front brake master cylinder cover. Make sure your bars are turned full left to position the master cylinder even while on the jiffy stand. Do this carefully and preferably indoors also so no debris blow into your open M.S. & contaminate your fluid.

Go back to the hand pump now and pump her up to 20 hg vacuum.
While holding the vacuum pumps nipple attachment firmly on the calipers nipple, open the bleed nipple a few turns with your (in my case) 3/8 open end wrench.

At this point you should be ready to go.
You now have a vacuum sucking so when you pump the brake lever it will suck the fluid into the container which is attached to your bleed kit.

The only things you have to do is:
1) don't spill a drop of DOT 4 on your paint because DOT 4 Eats Paint.
2) don't pump the lever without having your eyes in the master cylinder resovour
3) Do Not pump all the fluid out at one time or you will inject air into your system!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd recommend pumping the master cylinder below half and filling her back up and continue this process until you have filled the harbor freights bleed jar up which is attached to the vacuum pump 2 times per master cylinder.

Then retighten the calipers bleed screw, gently remove the harbor freight bleed/vacuum pump. Wipe up any drop of dot 4 from the caliper so the wind doesn't blow that drop on your paint.

Refill the master cylinder and take a second to clean/wipe the lip of the master cylinder clean as well as it's other half carefully and reinstall the m.s. cover.

Repeat for the rear.

This whole process took me about 30 minutes and 30 bucks. Worked for me. Thought I'd share it.
Later

 

Great job! I utilized this same proceedure when flushing mine. You can't beat the deal on the bleeder kit. Like you said it's a tool you will only use every couple of years so why spend a lot of dollars when this one works.

 

Good job!

Here's a tip I used when I did mine this year for the first time:

When finished and before removing the tube from the caliper bleed nipple, squeeze the vacuum pump handle a few times to add some vacuum. Then, when you remove the tube from the caliper bleed nipple, any residual drops of brake fluid at the end of the tube will get sucked into the reservoir instead of dripping onto your caliper.

 

Or go to Tractor Supply and buy a 50 cc syringe..and 8 cents worth of 1/4 clear tubing...crack the bleeder and pull the fluid out...have your wife or gf add as it drops. Or you can reverse fill it if you wish...even easier. 5$ total out of pocket. I do mine every winter...I use DOT5...

 

MitiVac makes a Y adapter that allows you to do both front brakes at the same time.

 

Thanks for the writeup. Mine is due and gonna have to do it. Looks like another trip to Harbor Freight.

Thanks Again,

SugsPa

 

Usefull info there...

 

Same here, I flushed mine after 2 years, fluid still looked good. This is also fine for ABS like mine, as long as you keep the reservoir topped off, and let NO AIR in the system.
I also flushed my truck brakes after 5 years - good idea to use a Dollar Store "Baster" or a type of syringe to remove old fluid then refill with new fluid before bleeding and pulling it thru your system.

 

I'm going to have to try the syringe idea.

 

Great tip. That would have saved me some wiping up. Thanks