250R front brake bleeding trouble

[X2guy]

I'm having trouble bleeding my front brake on my 86 250R. I have just finished a complete restore and can't seem to get the front brake bleed. I have put on braided lines and had no trouble bleeding the rear. I initially had a leak in the front master cylinder so I rebuilt it and the leak went away but it would not bleed. I have since taken my master cylinder from my CR250 (which i know works) and installed it and the system will still not bleed. There is no brake operation at all. Does anyone have any ideas?

[chris200x]

The brake caliper is not frozen is it?

You can try this... fill the MS with fluid. (make sure your resivior doesn't run dry with fliud... keep filling as necessary) loosen the beedernut. Queeze the lever till fluid shoots out. REtighten the bleeder nut. Repeat this process until all the air is out of the lines. So what I'm saying is loosen and retighten the bleeder everytime you squeeze the lever. This same process worked for me

[X2guy]

If the caliper was frozen there would be resistance in the brake lever.
That is the method I use to bleed brakes. The rear was not trouble.

[kb200x]

you can also try to crack open the bleeder to where it just barely drips out fluid and fill it full of fluid and go have a beer come back and fill it up again shake the line around a little and go have another beer. let gravity do the work of getting the air out. let it set and drip for a while and shake the air out and keep fluid full in 30 or so minutes try to go back to what chris was saying. Works for me anyway. :beer

[r00sty]

The problem is that your system is dry, and won't make a vaccume to suck the fluid through, this question has been answered 100 times at least, anyway here is what is needed, the short version.....

You have fluid in your res, so crack the line at the caliper to make sure fluid is down there, once there is, try the bleeding method, pump it up, hold, bleed, tighten, etc. etc. Always keep fluid in the res., and if you don't get pressure, you might have to either...
1. Let gravity help you, I let my bleeder stay open a crack over night with the res. full and it worked it's way down, or..
2. Put a clear hose on the bleeder and loop it up towards the bars and open it up, and keep filling the res. until all is full. Good luck....

[mean350]

what i did on my 350x is cracjked open the bleederand put a small hose on it and stuck the other end in a brake fluid jug.i was having the same problem as you. it takes about 30 seconds!!

[X2guy]

The system is not dry. I have fluid coming out the bleeder. I have used the gravity method as well. I have even put a long peice of hose on the bleeder and sucked the fluid through. There is no air in the system. I just don't get it.:twisted:

[jason 32]

blow the lines out with air/and mastercylinder collapse the weel cylinder clean it out see if master cyl pumps with out caliper hooked up

[Kintore]

X2 guy, I had this same problem as well. I let it gravity feed for ages, tryed the hose trick nothing worked. Worked for 5 hours one day, then when I couldnt get it I walked away. Came back the next day and re read the manual, and tryed it one final time. And I got more bubbles coming out the hose off the bleeder! So I did it a few more times and wola I had breaks.

Seems to me the air bubbles settle, I would allow a good day or two then try it again.

[X2guy]

Thanks. I think what I'll do is take the whole front brake system off and let the caliper hang straight down. Hopfully I can get gravity to do it's thing

[X2guy]

I finally spent some time on this thing last night. I put my CR master cylinder back on the CR and didn;t even have to crack the bleeder. I pumped it a few times and all the air bled out. I tried the same with the 250R master cylinder on the 250R and no go. I tried again every method I could think of wit no luck. I then took the CR cylinder back off and put it on the R, worked the lever a bit until all the air came out and finally I had breaks. Looks like ther was something wrong with the R cylinder after all.

[yater]

Back bleed it. It takes 3-5 minutes and works 100% of the time. I'm sure I've posted a "how to" in the past. You'll need about $10 worth of "stuff" to do it. I'll never try it any other way again.

[X2guy]

So what you mean is force the fluid in through the bleeder? I tried that with a squeeze bottle and hose. Didn't work. I like the method I used with the CR master cylinder. I just pumped the lever lightly and watched the air bubbles come out. the caliper was already full. If the system was dry this way would have taken much longer I'm sure.

[Mike_Ham_250R]

X2 guy, I had this same problem as well. I let it gravity feed for ages, tryed the hose trick nothing worked. Worked for 5 hours one day, then when I couldnt get it I walked away. Came back the next day and re read the manual, and tryed it one final time. And I got more bubbles coming out the hose off the bleeder! So I did it a few more times and wola I had breaks.

Seems to me the air bubbles settle, I would allow a good day or two then try it again.
This is EXACTLY what happened to me on my 250r. I feel your pain X2 Guy, it took us (3 men) 2 days to put pads on and bleed it.

[yater]

An "old style" oil can with the thumb pump works best. The squeeze bottle needs to be big enough not to have to "pump" it (needs to be one continuous squeeze until reservior is full). Also, the tubing should fit snugly over the bleeder nipple....not the banjo bolt (I've seen some try it). I've done this for years on my bikes and others and it has always worked first try.

[3peeler]

i had that prob on my 200x i only unhooked it to route the line correctly that someone had messed up then it would not bleed but i hooked the power vacuum bleeder on and it bled, our bleeder is a snap on pair powered unit but you can get a hand pump one from about any parts store if you cant borrow a power one or dont want to spend the 450 for a power one the hand pump ones do work good to and you should be able to get one for around 25.00

[DeePa]

i had the same problem on my 350x. Heard something pop then no brakes, rebuilt master cylinder to no avail, still wouldnt bleed. It wouldnt bleed even with mityvac's pump/vaccum. I ended up buying a new whole master cylinder set up on ebay and rebuilt the caliper (dust seals, pins, pin boots, piston seals, pistons, brake pads) and the brakes bled perfectly. Maybe something has finally worn too much and new parts are needed.

To rebuild the caliper with new pistons cost about 70-75 bucks at service honda and took about 15 minutes to do once i got the old pistons out. If youre going to rebuild it, get the pistons out with the brakes still attached to the master. Its a lot easier than using compressed air.

Mike

[X2guy]

Thanks guys for all your suggestions...All I know know is that I have brakes with the master cyl from my 02 CR250. There has gotta be something wrong with the original master cylinder. I like the CR master better anyway as it's a lot smaller. Now I just need to buy another for my CR.:beer

[lundisco]

im going through the same crap with my 350x right now, so agravating...