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I’m normally fine with Avid or SRAM bleeds but a set of Guides is trying to beat me.
Bleed block in place and clamps open, much more force than expected is needed to pass fluid from the lower syringe to the upper- enough to cause leaks at the adapter. Attempting to pass fluid back from upper to lower to see what was going on blew the hose off the brass adapter.
Ive tried two sets of syringes now (one brand new) and still got a crap job. I think there seems to be a lot of air in the lever and I’m not getting it all.
Front, so no really weird routing and not RSC so no bite point screw and good height difference for Master. Old style, pre- bleeding edge
Given up for now, will try again later with clamp open at lever while applying vacuum at calliper as that seems to be a difference in a couple of methods.
Anything else worth trying? Happy with Guides otherwise btw, not interested in suggestions of trying other brands... 😉
Make sure you're not bleeding front lever and rear caliper, from experience that doesn't work to well.
Have you slackened off the bleed screw at the caliper enough?
Lol! Definitely the front lever although I feel your pain there. Tadpole, SRAM brakes don't have bleed nipples like Shimano- you literally remove a plug and screw in a brass adaptor so there's no possibility of trying to bleed with a nipple that's insufficiently open...
Ah, I normally take the plug out, use an Allen key to slightly slacken off the bleed screw, plug the adaptor into the bleed screw till it clicks in, undo the bleed screw a little more by turning the adaptor, then syringe the fluid in. Perhaps I have a different caliper to yours.
Would a reverse bleed force the air from the lever out? Attach a syringe with a wee bit of fluid to the lever, attach a full syringe to the caliper and depress plunger...it should force fluid (and air) into the top syringe.
Yep, that sounds like the new style ‘bleeding edge’ from the S4 onward.
Just been back through mine and found a lot of air which isn’t really surprising given how crap they felt after earlier and looks like lowering the front hose (was slightly elevated over lever) has helped. Still doesn’t feel perfect but I’ve demonstrated that my syringes (all of them) are leaking from the plastic screw in adapters so I’m probably on a hiding to nothing here anyway.
Annoyingly the lever was perfect before I removed the lower syringe and did the final vacuum, pump and flick at the lever so I’m guessing that I let air back in or I’m not running a full system.
Time to give up until fresh syringes are available I think...
Try pulling at the same time as you push, if that makes sense!
Also the plastic syringes are crap - get better quality ones off eBay - they handle the pressure much better - no more leaky pipes!
I have had this before! Have you got the reach set close to the bars? If so wind it out as far as possible and try again, it shouldn't make any difference when you think about it but it seems to in practice. Or it could be a damaged diaphragm.
Reach was in but wasn’t second time round. I’m hoping it’s crap syringes rather than diaphragm... 😱
Well that’s it for this week folks, tune in for next weeks’ thrilling instalment when I’ve got real syringes... 🙄
Try taking the plunger out of the top syringe altogether, and see if that improves things. You'll need either a short hose, or some ingenuity to stop it falling over, but I find it easier to do it that way than with plungers in both (it's basically the same as using the cup that Shimano uses).
Make sure you’re not bleeding front lever and rear caliper, from experience that doesn’t work to well.
I was going to post exactly this 🙂
... taking a point from above and running with it, is the lever end of the bleed strictly necessary?
Obviously the bag part of a Shimano Bleed can’t be done, but if I fitted a Shimano funnel and pushed fluid up from the calliper and then dropped the pin, pulled on the syringe to remove air, repressurised then sealed the calliper, removed the pin and went to lever flicks and master cylinder reorientation like a Shimano process, would that work? Never tried this on SRAM before, but it seems that assuming you removed air adequately with the calliper syringe this should work? Might try that next time, I’ve got a Shimano funnel around...