An Adventure in Brake Lines and Bleeding
When I upgraded to front disc brakes, I knew I’d need to ditch the single bowl master cylinder (aka “death can”) for a dual bowl setup to provide separate circuits and pressures for front and rear brakes. What I thought would be a straightforward next-year project turned into this year’s adventure.
Installing the new master cylinder and booster was fairly easy, but it led to replacing all the brake lines. While my existing lines were in good shape, it seemed easier to start fresh than adapt them to the new master cylinder’s different line positions and fittings. Replacing the lines wasn’t too bad overall – the trickiest part was routing the front-to-rear line through the body and getting it to line up with existing clips.
I was worried about leaks at connections but only had one that was quickly resolved with some additional tightening. The real pain point was bleeding the system. I spent way too much time trying different bleeding approaches before finally buying a pressure bleeder that mounts to the master cylinder and forces fluid through while keeping it topped off. This worked extremely well, though it was a bit messy when removing the device.
I was glad I’d invested in the pressure bleeder because I had to re-bleed everything again when I discovered my proportioning valve was defective. Sometimes one upgrade really does lead to another, but having the right tools makes all the difference when things don’t go as planned.
