Anyone ever tried to use this to bleed brakes?

http://www.mityvac.com/pages/products_hvpk.asp

thinking about getting one.

 

I have a MityVac 7400 oil evacuator http://www.mityvac.com/pages/products_fee.asp#07400 and I bought the brake bleeder kit for it. It works off the same principle as the one you are looking at in that you create a vacuum with the tool, open the bleed nipple and the old fluid will be drawn out. It works okay, but I think units that pressurize the system from the master cylinder end and push the fluid out, such as those sold by Motive Products http://www.motiveproducts.com/) might work better.

My two biggest complaints with the vacuum unit is that 1) it's slow, and 2) when you hook it up and loosen/open the bleed nipple, it draws air in from around the threads and you will see bubbles in the line. MityVac instructions say that's nothing to worry about, but i don't like it. By using a unit that pushes the fluid thru the system, you wouldn't have that problem and the master cylinder would stay full.

Even though I have the MityVac tool, I'm not certain I'd use it again to bleed the brakes.

 

I have the cheap plastic-bodied one sold at Sears, which has held up better than I had initially expected, but I wouldn't be surprised if I had to buy another one. I had tried the two-person pump technique but I couldn't get them as firm as I wanted. I've done two cars, one ABS (sable) and one without (max).

I'll echo talkinghorse. It's slow - it took me longer than the pump technique (~1.5 hrs), but I'm not wasting the boss's time. I wish somebody had told me that it does draw in air, because I spent forever trying to get a good fit. In the end, the max worked best with just the tubing. Since it's sucking air, you gotta pump almost constantly, and, in the end, it seems to me like it's a slightly assisted gravity bleed. Also, you gotta ensure that the little canister remains upright or you'll spray fluid all over the place. I couldn't find any blessing of a vacuum bleed in any manual: they all want pressure or manual, and there were some random warnings on the internet that it's bad for ABS, but the manual makes no significant mention of it.

Having said that, my pedal is far harder than I could achieve manually. No problems on either car. Sears wanted $70 for the flush, so the $30 I spent on the tool (plus $6 for the valvoline synpower quart) is a bargain. If I did it more frequently, I'd buy a pressure one as talkinghorse suggested, but since I do it every 60k, I'll continue to use the mityvac.

 

well i wanted it for a what it was design for a vacuum hand pump to test wastegates and to see if things held vacuum as they should. So reguardless i'm getting one but just wondering how they worked for bleeding. We have a pressure one at work but its only made for VW's as the cap is only for their cars. I rather not get a 2nd person to help me bleed but its faster thats why i was thinking of this unit. Its not every day a person needs to bleed their brakes.

 

I already had a vacuum pump so I bought the rest of the kit at Sears. Had to add one run of tubing. It works okay. As said when you loosen the bleeder screw it might draw air. So I take off the bleeder and add teflon tape and re-install. Seems to work

 

I have used this Actron for about 2 years it works very well. I've used it to bleed the brakes on a Nissan Frontier, a Honda Accord, and a Chevy pickup.

http://www.amazon.com/Actron-CP7835-.../dp/B0007VT4RC

 

^ there is no diffrence between that and the mityvac or the craftsman one either. aleast tht i think of.