replacing rear brakes

[tuultyme]

I am in the process of replacing the rear brakes on my car.  I have the calipers and rotors off.  The dust cover on the calipers have deteriorated.  Does anyone have any suggestion on the correct method to intall new covers without rebuilding the calipers or should the caliper be rebuilt; they are not leaking?  Should a rebuild be left to a professional shop?  I am currently awaiting new pads, rotors, and flex brake hoses from SLClassics.

Bruce Green 1970 280SL

[rwmastel]

Bruce,
By "dust covers", do you mean the little rubber parts that move in and out with the pistons and keep the dust off (out of) the pistons?  Or, do you mean a cover that keeps brake dust from getting on the wheels?

On my 230SL, I replace all the rubber seals on my Girling 3-piston calipers.  There are ones that go around the inside of the cylinder and the others that I described above.  It's a PITA, but any calm and patient person can do it.

Rodd
1966 230SL Euro
1994 E420

[tuultyme]

My rear brakes are ATE, with 2 cylinders.  By using the BBB manual and the instruction that came with the Caliper repair kit I have replaced the cylinder washer and the rubber dust cover on the caliper cylinder.  What is the easiest method to bleed out the entire braking system?

Bruce; Green 1970 280SL.

[rwmastel]

Good job!  I replaced my brake fluid by purchasing an "EZ Bleed" type brake bleeder.  Here's a message thread that has the address & phone number:
http://www.eskimo.com/~dalus/bmw/e24/brakes/e24_bleeding_abs_brakes.html
It uses a bottle that you put brake fluid in that gets pressueized by your tire.  This pressure pushes the fluid into the resivoir and out the valve at the wheel (under your control).  It looks like this:
http://au.geocities.com/ozbrick850/brakes-bleed-bleeder.html
I've been told you start with the wheel farthest from the master cylinder and work your way towards it.  It works well, let me know if you have any questions.


Rodd
1966 230SL Euro
1994 E420

[tuultyme]

Has anyone ever tried to bleed the brake system by pulling the fluid out of the brake bleeder with a small pump rather than using the pressure type of system?  

Bruce; Green 1970 280SL

[Gerhard]

Pulling the brake fluid out of your system is not a safe method. You risk air come in to the break system. I know in the "old" days we did this job with 2 people. One filling the system and opening the cilinders to drain the old fluid. The 2nd person was operating (pumping) the brake pedal on command by number one. 1 would yell press and open the drain so the pedal was pushed to the floor, close the drain and yell to release the pedal. In those days (70's) this took about 15-20 min to refresh the brake system. Early 80's when I was with BMW (yuk) a sort of pressure system was introduced and you could handle this alone.



Gerhard
1965 230SL

[pkiefert]

I have used the vacuum pump method numerous times over 15 years on a variety of vehicles and it has never been a problem. Sometimes you just can't find that assistant you need.  As long as you watch the fluid level in the reservoir there is no more risk of introducing air in the system than any other method.

[Naj ✝︎]

I use the mityvac which is a vacuum hand pump. The kit came with a resevoir into which you suck the fluid from the caliper. You start with some fluid in the resevoir which ensures no air bleeds back into the caliper. Works for me!
I did try the EZ bleed kit. It comes with a few caps, one of which should fit properly on the fluid resevoir. There wasn't one good enough for me 230sl resevoir and I had pressurised brake fluid all over the engine bay. And everybody knows what brake fluid does to paint-work....[!]
naj

naj
'Kloines Scheisserle'
65 230SL
68 280SL

[rwmastel]

EZ Bleed works fine on my 230SL.  Maybe they cap types depend on your source.  Look at www.Eastwoodco.com, they have ezbleed and mityvac systems.

Rodd
1966 230SL Euro
1994 E420