Pressure bleeder better than vacuum as air ingress through the bleed nipple threads isn’t a factor. Make sure the reservoir is full, fit a cap over it and apply about 10 psi air pressure and bleed the lines, longest first. Keep an eye on the reservoir level.
Seems like one would be easy enough to make. The most difficult part would be finding a cap to properly screw onto the brake bottles. IIRC, the clutch bottle takes a standard small oil bottle cap.
Absolutely agree with Nick here. Buy the Gunson one; cheap and turns misery into ease.
I have access to a fluid feed pressure bleeder. This is a piece of professional kit which consists of a cart which carries a 50l drum of brake fluid, connects to an air line, and has a hose with a quick connect coupling and a selection of tops to fit most brake/clutch reservoirs. It has an on/off valve, and you can even regulate the hydraulic pressure (it has a gauge built in, and a dessicator/separator for the airline).
If you think that any other method of bleeding a brake/clutch is tedious, just work with one of these to bleed/flush the system on a single car… you would not believe how incredibly tedious any and all other methods of bleeding will seem after this.
If you’re going to make a bleeder/flusher, feed Oil to the reservoir.
It’s a bother to make a new cap for an oddball reservoir, but we have a sort of universal plate with a gasket and a strap to hold it to the reservoir for oddball cars. 50l is a bit much for amateur use, but boy oh boy, working with machine this has spoilt me rotten.
Are you familiar with speed bleeders…replaces your existing bleed nipple… http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorsport/brake-bleeders/goodridge-speed-bleeder
Using a bicycle inner tube clamped with a radiator hose clamp onto the top of the brake or clutch reservoirs is simple and very effective. The technique as been previously described on this forum.
I tried posting a link to that thread, but for some reason (perhaps because the thread was in the old forum?) it wouldn’t connect to the thread. Basically, you just take a fat bicycle inner tube, cut it in half and seal one cut end (I used Permatex weather stripping adhesive). Then fill the reservoir bottle and use a radiator hose clamp to attach the unsealed end to the top of the bottle. Pressurize the system to something like 10 lbs. (I just add air until the inner tube swells a bit. and then open the bleed screw. Of course, keep an eye on the reservoir bottle so that you don’t run it down to empty. It works like a charm on both brake and clutch hydraulics.
Everything from the old forum is here, but when you post a url pointing to the old site it doesn’t work.
Perhaps you meant this thread?
The inner tube method is pretty slick, it impressed the heck out of a couple of guys who were watching me when I used it.
I remove the bleed screws and put teflon tape on them. Since it’s so easy to pull a lot of fluid through the system with a vacuum bleeder, you know any air bubbles are not coming from trapped air in the system.
With some of my unusual cars like the Lambo, it’s too much of a pain to try to get a pressure bleeder on the reservoir, so I’ll stick with my vacuum bleeder which has worked like a charm on all my cars for 15 years.