A few weeks ago I broke the bleed screw off the rear caliper on my '97 Sportsman 500. I was unable to get the screw out so I got a new caliper off ebay. The caliper was for a '96 but I looked up the part numbers and they were the same.

I installed everything without a problem and I started to bleed the rear brake. After 30 minutes I was still not getting ANY resistance on the hand brake lever. I moved to the front brakes and tried to bleed them.

All the brakes seem to have been bled fine...no air bubbles coming out at all. However I still don't have brakes.

Any ideas? Or do I give up and take it in for service.

 

hi,did the front master completely empty,if it did you need to bench bleed it before you can bleed the rest.

 

Yep it did. I also followed the instructions on how to bleed the master cylinder by disconnecting the hose and using your thumb to cover outlet while pulling the brake lever. Is there a difference between that and "bench" bleeding?

 

did it build up pressure?bench bleed is puttin a clear tube at the end,putting it in the res.pumping until all the air is out of the master.of course the rest of the system is full when you reattach or it will empty again.when your bleeding the master can never even get close to empty..

 

Yea, it built up plent of pressure. I know that it did get very low but not completly empty. I might try it again from the begining and see what happens.

I'm 'bout worn out with this damn thing.

 

make sure you keep it full.start with the rear,then front right then front left.have someone opening the bleeds only after u build up whatever pressure you can,then when the bleed is opened slowly follow the lever down.DO NOT LET-UP ON LEVER UNTIL BLEED IS CLOSED! this is the most common mistake....................

 

Done it all over and over! Master Cylinder, rear, front right, front left. I even used the clear tube trick so I could see the airbubbles. As it stands, no air in any of the calipers, no air at the master cylinder, no leaks and NO BRAKES!!! ARGH!

I don't get any pressure when depressing the hand brake. I haven't even messed with the foot break. Should I do that?

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

truthfully foot brake aint gonna do much at all alone,do you have a duel piston caliper.two lines, two bleeds,lines crossed maybe??

 

No. Only 1.

Gonna give it 1 more try today to see if I can get it going...then I'm done.

 

why didn't you post what happened?!? I'm having this same issue - if you solved it please post so others can benefit! (namely me :-)