George Vondriska teaches you how to bleed brakes with a vacuum or compressed air system when you don’t have a partner to help.
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5:47
How to Replace a Master Cylinder
Using his slick-looking 1947 Ford F1 for demonstration, Brent Ackley teaches you how to replace a master cylinder on a classic car by disconnecting the brake light switch and brake lines, removing the old master cylinder and bench bleeding the new one.
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3:35
New Wheels and Tires for Classic Cars
Suspension is a good first step for improving the handling of a car, but Cam Benty explains how new, better wheels and tires for classic cars can make an even bigger difference. Cory installs the wheels and teaches you about an aspect you might have otherwise overlooked: alignment.
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6:14
Repacking the Wheel Bearings
Brent Ackley repacks the wheel bearings on his 1966 Buick Skylark to inspect them for wear and damage. He removes the dust cover, cotter key and castle nut to teach you how to take out both the inner and outer bearings for cleaning and then examine and repack them.
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2:26
Classic Car Restoration: Disc Brake Overview
Disc brakes are a popular upgrade for many years and makes of cars. The advantages of disc brakes include superior stopping power, improved reliability and greater ease of maintenance. Mark Simpson takes us through an overview of the SSBC brake conversion kit we’ll be installing on our ’57 DeSoto project, which includes everything we’ll need…
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How much do those bleeder tools cost and where are they available to purchase??
Most brake bleeding tools are available between $25 to $50. There are several companies that make them… which is the best? I haven’t tested them side-by-side as my “Mity-Vac” has been doing the job for nearly 30-years without failing. Do a Google search for “Vacuum Bleeding Tool”, and you’ll discover a multitude of choices and price ranges.
Wrench Safe, Mark
When I hook the vacuum pump to my bleeder fitting, it sucks air in past the bleeder threads, so all I see are air bubbles continuously. Is there a way to prevent this?
This can be a problem on some cars, try not to loosen the bleeder as much and see if that helps. If you are pulling a good amount of fluid through the system with your bleeding process, the small amount of bubbles you are seeing in the tube is likely not an issue as the air that enters is being immediately evacuated. You can also complete your bleeding process by having someone step on the brake pedal, while you open then close the bleeder before they release the pedal. You’ll know you have it right when you have a good firm brake pedal, that DOES NOT require you to pump the pedal to get firm braking.
Wrench Safe, Mark
I had that problem so I wrapped the bleeder threads with Teflon tape. Seemed to help a lot.
The Four-Wheel Anti-lock Brake System (ABS) is an electronically otearped, all wheel brake control system. Major components include the power brake booster, master cylinder, the wheel speed sensors, and the Hydraulic Control Unit (HCU) which contains the control module, a relay, and the pressure control valves. When anyone of these malfunction the ABS Light will come on. Reference: