ID my Hope brakes and help me bleed please?

Tech 3 levers I think...
Bleeding is easy...attach syringe to caliper and attach similar to reservoir...fill from caliper.
That is the ultra-simple version of it, but once fluid has filled top syringe you can push plunger and get the fluid filling bottom syringe. Do that several times as it should remove any air and change the fluid.

Tech 2 (not evo) lever. There is also a reservoir cap on the underside so you can run the lever on either side.

Caliper is X2.

You can tell it's not the evo version as that had a roller pushing the master piston rather than a cam.

There's various ways to bleed them but all will work. However, to finish, I used to leave the pistons exposed slightly. Then remove the lever clamp, under there, is a 4mm hex that exposes the inside of the reservoir. Put some rag over this and then reset the pistons. This will zero the internal pressure and purge the last little bit of air. Plug back up, clean, refit.

Happy to walk you through it if you're near South Yorkshire

Tech X2,

Blast over to the hopetech website, select products, brakes then scroll way down to find their tech manuals etc.

They're Tech2 levers, and unless you've got a specific reservoir cap for bleeding, then there won't be anywhere to fit a syringe or similar. They can be bled easily without syringes (just like car brakes used to be bled), by levelling the lever, removing the top cap with a T10 torx, 8mm ring spanner on the bleed nipple, and a plastic hose from it into a catch jar. As simple as squeeze the lever, open the nipple, close the nipple, release the lever, and repeat. Always make sure there's fluid in the reservoir, and never release the lever with the nipple open.I'm sure Hope will have a video too.Edit-good call by Onzadog on the 4mm plug too, i'd forgotten about that

Thqts a Hope Tech master cyl, not a tech3.

Rotate the lever until that part with the cover on is horizontal. Open it up and remove the rubber cover. Attach a section of hose onto the bleed nipple, and use a vessel to catch what comes out. You can also use a syringe on the end.

Fill the reservoir with clean new DOT fluid. Squeeze brake lever and open the bleed nipple you have attached the hose to. Fluid and bubbles will come out. Close bleed nipple and let go of lever. Repeat until clean fluid is coming out of bleed nipple. Keep checking reservoir is full! Replace rubber reservoir cover in a rolling motion to expel air. Replace reservoir cover. Wipe up spilled fluid with wet cloth.

Ride!

Blast over to the hopetech website, select products, brakes then scroll way down to find their tech manuals etc.

thanks, thats exactly what ive done. just watched a couple of vids so i feel more confident to bleed them now.

Happy to walk you through it if you’re near South Yorkshire

sadly not mate, but thanks for the offer.

thanks everyone for the advice, much appreciated. i'll get some fluid ordered and have a bash.

cheers

I've got those se brakes n my Solaris.
I bleed them like Coatsey describes and it works fine

(although theres no sign of a leak and they worked a few months ago)

Personally Im not a fan of the tech lever, I've serviced a number of them and many suffered from people thinking there was a leak and tightening down the cover screws to tight, chewing the threads.

Bleeding tip -

After you've bled them. Put the lid back on, release the clamp a bit then turn it til the master cylinder is vertical, give it a little wobble back and forth, then back to upright, take the lid back off and refill.

Because of the twin diaphragm design, air seems to get trapped in the bottom,and soon as you pull the lever, all you do is pump air into the system

I can quite understand why Hope dropped this design and went back to the single lid. they just never seemed to work right for very long.

well ive just had a bash and its certainly better, hopefully the best it can be 🙂

followed the 2 vids on the hope website, one for the tech lever, and one for bleeding in general.

took top cap off and hardly any oil in there so looks like that was the problem. dont know where its gone tho as theres no sign of a leak either end.

anyways, topped it up, then the unscrew/pump/screw/release method until hopefully no more bubbles in there. plenty of bubbles came out, and still kept coming out even when i thought it should all be flushed through. matey on the vid only used one cylinder full, i probably topped up 3 or 4 times until there didnt seem to be any more bubbles.

topped up again, rolled the diaphragm back over (didnt replace it as im impatient :D), and then....

After you’ve bled them. Put the lid back on, release the clamp a bit then turn it til the master cylinder is vertical, give it a little wobble back and forth, then back to upright, take the lid back off and refill.

....also the same as the vid. vertical cylinder, pump a few times, then he pushed the pistons back a bit still whilst pumping which seems to be pretty much the same as ^^^

then cap off again, refill until just overflowing, roll diaphragm and tighten top cap.

the video then talks about 'centralising' the pads/pistons which i didnt really understand. pushing them back a bit with the screwdriver whilst pumping.
my method of 'centralising has always been to loosen caliper, squeeze brake until pads lock onto rotor and then tighten.
id be interested to know what this centralising method is sposed to do please?

and just one more thing that i havent done yet and will await an answer here before going ahead.....

However, to finish, I used to leave the pistons exposed slightly. Then remove the lever clamp, under there, is a 4mm hex that exposes the inside of the reservoir. Put some rag over this and then reset the pistons. This will zero the internal pressure and purge the last little bit of air. Plug back up, clean, refit.

there is indeed a machined 'grub screw'. i dont really understand what you mean, but im guessing i invert the lever so the grub screw is at the top, unscrew slightly, then push pistons back until a bit of oil weeps out? is that right? im loathe to mess about with it unless i understand it so as not to draw any more air into it.

thanks

id be interested to know what this centralising method is sposed to do please?

It ensures the brake works evenly across all the pistons, generating the most power and keeping the modulation. Makes a big difference to an brake, not just Hope ones, and is my go-to method for every brake I have. Not doing this correctly is one of the reasons so many people complain about Hope not having much power, they don't if you don't set them up correctly.

id be interested to know what this centralizing method is supposed to do please?

As above, just a case of as you say getting the rotor in the dead center of the caliper. Pistons dont always come out the same amount, and you'll find on the side where the fluid goes in first, those pistons move first.

My new trick is playing cards.

Count the number of cards you can get between the rotor and the pads. So put the wheel on, leaving the caliper very loose. Stuff in as many cards as you can fit between the rotor and the pad- My V4's are 4 cards. So if i put two cards on each side, this means the space i have is halved, therefore the rotor is central to the caliper.

Tighten up, pull out the cards and its set. Just make sure the pistons and pads are as far back as they can be before you start.

I have to say ive yet to give this a go 😆 but in theory it should work perfectly as it is a case of halving the space when the rotor is sitting in the slot.

There is a small caliper centralizing tool, but it's thinner so wont exactly centralize it. Being the frugal Scotsman, damned if im paying £2.99 for one of those 😆 especially as its not exactly perfect.

the video then talks about ‘centralising’ the pads/pistons which i didnt really understand. pushing them back a bit with the screwdriver whilst pumping.
my method of ‘centralising has always been to loosen caliper, squeeze brake until pads lock onto rotor and then tighten.
id be interested to know what this centralising method is sposed to do please?

I think it in part was to exercise the seals a little bit by getting each piston to move through the seal a bit they get lubricated then they should move more evenly.

and just one more thing that i havent done yet and will await an answer here before going ahead…..

However, to finish, I used to leave the pistons exposed slightly. Then remove the lever clamp, under there, is a 4mm hex that exposes the inside of the reservoir. Put some rag over this and then reset the pistons. This will zero the internal pressure and purge the last little bit of air. Plug back up, clean, refit.

there is indeed a machined ‘grub screw’. i dont really understand what you mean, but im guessing i invert the lever so the grub screw is at the top, unscrew slightly, then push pistons back until a bit of oil weeps out? is that right? im loathe to mess about with it unless i understand it so as not to draw any more air into it.

This 4mm plug under the bar clamp is there because it's part of the manufacturing process. This hole is where the drill passes through so that the master piston bore can connect to the reservoir.

The reason for bleeding, then pointing the lever down and then refilling is to release any air trapped in the master piston bore and/or trapped in the folds of the underside of the rubber diaphragm.

My method allows that trapped air to rise under that plug by having the lever vertical. By then pushing the pistons back into the caliper, you purge the air and some fluid out. I always found it easier than the fitting, removing, refitting of the diaphragm that hope recommend.

thanks, i think im starting to understand 'centralising' a bit more now. basically my method of aligning the caliper wouldnt correct any sticky pistons or whatever, itd just solve the consequence, not the reason yep?

and im still not totally there with this 4mm plug yet, bear with me please 🙂

so matey in the vid dropped the lever vertically, pumped the lever a few times, then went horizontal again and refilled. that was his way of releasing air from next to this plug am i right?

and your 'take the plug out' method does the same thing but simpler, is that what youre saying? so youd only need to do one of them, not both?
and lets say i do your way, can you help me through it please as i dont want to get this far (brake seems fine now) and then introduce a load of air in and have to start again.

what exactly do you do? invert the brake so plug is at the top, take out plug (this is where id be scared of air getting in), push pistons back so fluid starts to seep from cylinder, then screw plug back in, displacing a bit more fluid at the same time? is that right?

thanks

Yeah, similar but more straightforward (in my opinion).

Point the lever down like the chap in the video. Have something in the caliper to stop the pistons coming out too far. Pump the lever a few times. This allows any trapped air out of the mater piston bore and into the reservoir. Any air bubbles trapped under the diaphragm can also rise up. The high point, with the lever blade facing down, is under this plug. Remove the plug and push the pistons back (slowly, or you'll shoot brake fluid in the air. I find it's easier to bleed through this plug than through the diaphragm. There's less risk of introducing air.

Making said that, air in the reservoir isn't a problem providing the air never gets down to the level of the transfer port that connects the reservoir to the master piston bore.

interesting, so youre not even bleeding it with the cap off at all, youre purely bleeding and re-filling from this bore?

Have something in the caliper to stop the pistons coming out too far.

so the pads, yes?

and i suppose the only faff is that the lever isnt connected to the bar with this method, so would need holding/fixing to something else instead?

cheers

If it's a small bleed, then through this plug is find. Getting a lot of fluid in might be quicker through the diaphragm. I did wonder if it would be possible to make an adapter for a syringe to fit that plug port.

Pads left in will work, but old ones are better as you'll probably need a screwdriver to prize them back apart. The risk is that it's possible for two pistons to stay "home" and the others extend far enough to pop out. I use a couple of metal strips (from an old rack mount I think) in the position that a rotor would be in, secured with a rubber band.

As for the lever, I hold it in a work stand or a vice.

Point the lever down like the chap in the video. Have something in the caliper to stop the pistons coming out too far. Pump the lever a few times. This allows any trapped air out of the mater piston bore and into the reservoir. Any air bubbles trapped under the diaphragm can also rise up. The high point, with the lever blade facing down, is under this plug.

at this point the plugs still in right, so im basically just pushing the pads onto the rotor to a stop.

Remove the plug and push the pistons back (slowly, or you’ll shoot brake fluid in the air. I find it’s easier to bleed through this plug than through the diaphragm. There’s less risk of introducing air.

i understand this so far, pump the lever, itll send air to top of bore beneath plug, then remove plug and slowly push pistons back until fluid (and any air bubbles) weep out.
and then replace plug.

but then you said.....

Pads left in will work, but old ones are better as you’ll probably need a screwdriver to prize them back apart. The risk is that it’s possible for two pistons to stay “home” and the others extend far enough to pop out.

what am i missing? why would they need prising apart? they didnt when i did it earlier with pads/rotor still in place, so why would they doing your method? the only way i can see anything needing prising apart is if im pumping the brakes with no rotor/spacer. which im not doing?

sorry, but im missing something obvious arent i :D. (i told you its been a while......)

At the end of a bleed, whatever method you use, you need to reset the fluid volume. This means purging excess fluid either through the caliper bleed nipple, or through the lever reservoir (or in this case, the reservoir plug). The correct volume is when the reservoir is full of fluid and free of air and the pistons are all home.

Once the lever is pointing down, it really doesn't matter if the plug is in or not. One of the key things to understand about open system disc brakes is that as you squeeze the lever a seal passes that transfer port. At this point, your open system becomes a closed system because the master piston is now closed off from the reservoir.

The only reason I mentioned prising pads apart is that I like to exercise the pistons during a bleed. If you push the pistons home at the start of the process and then chock them there with a bleed block, or pads and rotor, there isn't much movement. I find that some systems that might trap air in the caliper benefit from the pistons moving out during the bleed (put setting in there so they don't come out too far). Then I'll occasionally reset the pistons during the bleed. This can dislodge any tricky bits of trapped air and make them easier to bleed out.

I'm sure lots of people reading this think I'm going to the far end of a fart with my bleed process and they're probably right but I do like to make sure I do a thorough job. This is especially the case as it's not just my brakes I bleed.

Have something in the caliper to stop the pistons coming out too far.

so the pads, yes?

No, its not uncommon for tubes and things to detach from the bleed nipple and the pads become contaminated when the fluid leaks onto them

So use old pads if you have them.