Flushing brakes

[live4theking]

I've been working on motorcycles more than playing with my C body later.. Believe me I'd rather be playing with the C and riding the motorcycle.

Anyway I've always heard it recommended to flush your brake fluid out every two years. How many of us actually do this though ?

Unfortunately the motorcycle I bought this spring while low mileage the maintenance was badly neglected I'm coming to find out. Seeing that it was going to need brake pads I thought that I would flush the system first. The fluid came out the color of apple cider. Oh, my it was horrible.

While I only have one C to maintain I know some of you have multiple and I'd recommend you put this on your maintenance rotation.

This fella has a pretty slick trick for doing this that I think I'm going to adopt when doing car brakes. You can see the color if your flushing, bubbles if your bleeding, and it keeps the mess off the floor. There are even check valves that one could buy from motion pro to make it a one person job. this may be an old trick for you guys, but I thought that it was pretty handy and worth sharing.

Hopefully when you flush your brakes you don't find that your brake fluid has turned to apple cider.

 

[CBODY67]

Seems that the deal with flushing came to mind after the advent of anti-lock brakes and how moisture might impact the ABS mechanism over time. Prior to that, never heard of flushing brake fluid, unless you were going to syn fluid or such.

But if brake linings lasted 45K miles back then, driving 12K miles/year, that would mean the whole system would be open every 3-4 years anyway. When the wheel cylinders were disassembled, honed, and new kits installed. Then new fluid installed and the system bled to remove air in the lines and such. This would have been "in normal use", though, not "HD or towing use".

AND . . . back then, every service station I knew of had a metal gallon jug of brake fluid on the bench, with the cap off and the bulb for fluid installation sticking in it. Nothing sealed to keep moisture out. How'd we ever survive???

Enjoy!
CBODY67

 

[68 4spd Fury]

Two years seems a bit excessive. I will say though 46 years was way over the line, (as it was with my 68 when I first got it), stuff was like a brown mud. I would just keep an eye on the condition, color ect. If/when you bleed go the extra and make sure you pump all old out of the lines.

 

[1970FuryConv]

Dot 3 brake fluid lasts longer than 2 years. At the mileage per year we put on our vehicles, way longer.

I use one man bleeder kit to flush brakes when I redo the brakes in my cars. Dot 3 should be good for life of calipers and wheel cylinders.