I love their products. But this shit is annoying af. I bled Shimano Systems all day long, never got a problem. Now, how should I get this fluid back up? They say to not use the caliper syringe, but the lever syringe. I pull like a madman and even if the lever syringe is nearly completely pulled out, nothing happens. Nothing. But I sweat like hell now, because it is like muscle training.
What should I do?
by [deleted]
11 Comments
watch some YouTube videos…it’s not to hard. Biggest thing I found is I worried to much about getting every bubble out of the syringe during prep and when I made a vacuum to bleed the bubbles I’d pull to hard and more bubbles would come in through the seal…once I gave up on trying to get every single bubble out of the syringes, my bleeds have been good. Can typically due a bike in 15-20 minutes.
I totally disagree. Bleeding Edge is awesome. I don’t love the brakes (team Hope) but I think SRAM has by far the best bleeding system.
I had a similar sounding problem a few months ago. Turns out there was a tiny piece of rubber lodged in one of the little ports in the piston that sits inside the lever body. So I could push fluid down, but it was impossible to draw/push the fluid back up.
I tore the whole lever apart and discovered the fluid reservoir was milled crooked into the lever body. So the bleed port on one side wasn’t deep enough, causing the bleed port o-ring to get degraded a little bit every time it was torqued down. Eventually a piece of rubber completely disconnected from the o-ring and became lodged in the piston port, causing poor braking performance and making it impossible to bleed.
Which SRAM brakes do you have?
I’ve got DB8s on our tandem & I was planning to bleed them myself while we’re touring NZ next year… but if that’s going to be a struggle I’ll maybe use an LBS instead.
I know DB8s don’t use Bleeding Edge as they’re Mineral Oil not DOT4 – so I’m hoping that means a more ‘mainstream’ bleed process…
You can push and pull with both syringes as long as you make sure the plungers both face upwards. It’s to stop you allowing air into the system from the top.
You can even gravity bleed them like shimano of you really want. But that method does make getting air out from around the pistons harder.
I agree
It’s a pain until you get used to it. Watching tutorials is a great way to learn. They teach you the whole process. But once you’ve done it a few times you learn that a few steps are unnecessary in most situations. And no shade on the tutorials. I had a carpentry teacher that said something I’ll never forget. He said “first you learn the right way to do something. Then you learn the real way”
The real way, assuming you’re just trying to flush some air out, is to simply run fluid through it with the two syringes. The whole thing about strapping your lever down and blocking the lever syringe while it do it is unnecessary in *most* situations.
So with that in mind, it’s not *that* much more complex than Shimano.
Look for the Garage 31 video on YouTube. It’s a master class on SRAM bleeds
Small hijack of this post – anyone know what tubing to buy to replace the tubing in the pro bleed kit? I…. didn’t follow the instructions and left the DOT-fluid a couple of days after bleeding.
Is this your caliper syringe on the picture? I think there shouldn’t be air between plunger and fluid. Air can be increased in Volume by applying under-pressure and the fluid won’t move.
If the air is from pushing the lever syringe, so I mean a lot of air in the system, I would close the caliper port. Remove the syringe, turn it around and push air out. The put it back and try again.
Another idea I have for troubleshooting is double checking the the rubber sealings at all ports. Especially syringe. I once had lost one on the syringe and it wasn’t sealed properly and while pulling, I only pulled air.
While writing this I see OP deleted? Gotta love those passive aggressive redditors when just trying to help them …
Ah….. The bleed process and the random swelling of a piston was enough for me to change.