I see a lot of posts on here about people having issues with bleeding the cooling systems on the newer ATV's. Has anyone ever tried the AirLift tool to fill the cooling system? I have never used one on an ATV but use it a lot on cars and trucks. The reason I have never used one is the 350's and 400's that i mainly work on have bleeders on the head so I never have an issue with bleeding them. How this tool works is it uses shop air to draw the cooling system into a vacuum. Once in a vacuum, it can be left to sit to check for leaks by seeing if it drops in vacuum pressure. If it stays put, then you put the coolant hose into a bucket of coolant and open the valve. It draws the coolant into the system without allowing air pockets. I have never had an issue with an air locked system except on a ford fusion hybrid. The reason this car was so tough to bleed is the hybrid has a complex cooling system that incorporates the gas engine and the hybrid motor and there are many small areas that air can be trapped.....that and its a ford. I usually use this tool, then top the system off and add a little bit more to the overflow bottle than it calls for. I run one cooling cycle and after it cools down, the level is usually right where it needs to be. I would assume this tool could be rented from an auto parts store that rents tools, but I'm not sure. If I ever do a newer ATV cooling system, I will try it out on it and post it on here, but for now, I just took a video of it working on a chrysler minivan I did this morning.

Have a happy thanksgiving!
Mike

 

Principle is like a large mityvac for brake bleeding.With remote filler necks I can see it working good,but does it work or have an adapter on models with just the overflow reservoir cap? If so that would make coolant changing and bleeding a lot easier.

 

It has a tapered rubber adapter that fit multiple size filler necks. It can go down to the small sized overflow jugs. I would assume it would work on the systems that just have a filler on the remote jug since this is how I have to full some GM products that eliminated the radiator cap and went with a coolant recovery bottle with the cap on there.

Mike