OK, finished brake calliper painting to red, they look real nice. I got as much fluid out of res. tank as I could and filled up tank. Then I filled up motive power bleeder and pumped up to around 10psi. Started with pass. rear inside bleed value,,,,, no fluid coming out. I then pumped up to about 17psi and still nothing. Said the hick with it and pumped the brake myself and it worked. Got all air out and fluid ran clean. Did the outside value and repeated for each wheel and master cyc also. Did I miss something? I thought the whole point of a power bleeder was that you didn't have to pump the brake yourself? Can someone pleas enlighten me on how this is supposed to work?
Thanks

 

Bill.........the motive power bleeder is fairly easy to use and should not require pumping the brake (I assume you mean the pedal).

I only put in 1 litre of brake fluid into the power bleeder, starting with a full master cylinder and pumped up the pressure to 10psi. I was bleeding the brakes after painting my calipers also and required sometime to get all the air out.

Is it possible the pressures you used were too high?

 

I let it sit for around 30 minutes while I ate lunch. The pressure was at 10psi, bleeder was open and the fluid was not coming out. Then I pumped it up a let it sit for about 5 min. and nothing. Only when I pumped, yes the pedal, did the fluid come out.

 

Weird.

Sorry, that's the best I can do. The Motive thing worked fine for me.

So, you have pressure in the bottle...Is the line from the bottle blocked? Is there a protective seal in the cap that needs to be removed? I mean, what else could it be?

 

I use the Motive unit all the time without issue. I suspect as Bill suggests, something is blocking the fluid from moving.

 

Is it possible that your brake pedal is misadjusted, and that the cylinder wiper is blocking the intake port to the cylinder? Try backing off just a hair on the adjustment. This could account for all of the symptoms you describe, including the fact that it worked when you pumped the brake manually... this would allow the piston to bounce back and clear the port often enough to get the job done.

 

Bill,
Dave has surely pinpointed your problem, as you never mentioned disconnecting your motive bleeder to add brake fluid to the reservoir throughout the process (ergo - the pressure bleeder works, and delivered fluid to the reservoir as you pumped the brake pedal).
My home made bleeder works just fine at 7-8 psi, so not much more should be required.

 

I had the same thing happen when I used the bleeder just before SITM---Pumped to 15 PSI, open the bleed screw and nothing.
When I took the bleed screws out, I found they were clogged and corroded. I had 2 new ones which I used for replacements and cleaned up the other 2. After that the bleeder worked great at lower pressure.

 

Thanks Dave, I didn't think of that yesterday. I'll look at that when I get home. Thanks to everyone else also.