Clutch bleeding with new lines--THE ONLY WAY

[yellerduck]

I'll have to say this is one of the most challenging things I have done so far on my bike. Adjusting my valves was a walk in the park compared to this. I had the bright idea to replace my rubber brake / clutch lines w/ gaffler ss lines. Starting out one bright Saturday morning, I intended to have the project finished in one day. NOT! FYI, I have four maintenance manuals and can tell you that the Ducati MM is the worst out of them all! I can't possible imagine bleeding brake lines a clear hose in a can of brake fluid, yeah right. Maybe if I was in prison for the next thirty years and could suck on the hose really hard.

I achieved this feat with many a tireless night wondering what I was doing wrong. Here are the things I learned:

1) patience, patience, patience, this ain't gonna happen quickly.

2) the hydraulic line can and will pressurize with some air in the line, you don't have to remove all of the air (this will be hard to swallow for some perfectionist's).

3) have plenty of rags, a spray bottle of water and simple green or other cleaner and rubber gloves. You will spill brake fluid. Your hands will turn out looking like they have been floating in a swimming pool next to your dead body if you don't wear rubber gloves.

OK, this method is not new, I found it a few times while tirelessly searching this forum for the answers. I have found that you will need a large syringe. One person mentioned a 60 mm syringe that you can find at a pet supply store. I found one in my kitchen that my wife used to inject crap into chicken and turkey (guess she won't be using it anymore!)

After attaching all the new lines, I filled the syringe up with fresh brake fluid and injected it through the bleed screw (you will need all the fittings on the syringe to the bleed hole air / fluid tight). A lot of air and fluid will end up in the resevoir. Brake fluid will go spewing through the air out of the resevoir onto your expensive body work and other painted surfaces. Put a rag over the resevoir, etc. I tried putting a dime in the resevoir but the pressure was so great it just moved the dime out of the way and commenced to spewing fluid all over the place.

It took me about five or six times of injecting the fluid into the line before I could pressurize it and achieve some resistance. Bleeding with a vacuum pump did little to no good between injections. In fact, when I finally got the line pressurized, I didn't even bleed it once with a vacuum pump. That's right, I didn't bleed the line at all and it works! Stiff, strong resistance on the clutch.

[ducinthebay]

A good method most certainly.
Most vacuum bleeders will work in the opposite, as in pressure, and will do exactly as you mentioned with the syringe, except the brake bleeder has a bigger reservoir and will probably do it in one throw. The down side is that you will spend $30-50 for one. Your syringe was free, at least until the wife starts asking for it.

cheers,

[persempre907]

...and at the sunday no pastries :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Ciao