VF500 Interceptor -- No front brake pressure

anytime the mc was drained it MUST be bled at the banjo bolt hole FIRST.

 

Jim,

Do that as a last resort.

Start at the top as I think you have air trapped in the M/C.

So I would reverse bleed.

Put a ring spanner 7 or 8mm on the bleed. You attach your syringe (FILLED with brake fluid) to the right front caliper to the bleed. Ensure that the fluid is visible in the tube & at the bleed - BEFORE OPENING IT. Slacken the bleed screw & at the same time press the syringe. BE CAREFUL. You are NOT trying to put 50psi in it - you just want enough pressure to push fluid & air through... Once a little pressure is in the system, pull in the front brake lever - I'll put money on you see bubbles in the master cylinder container. Now I normally pull - sorry SQUEEZE the front lever a couple of times during this process. Then tighten the bleed screw.

Now if you can continuously see bubbles appear I would switch to master cylinder bleeding then the reverse bleed after.

Doing both methods isn't a bad thing & sometimes is required.

watch these:

Testing your master cylinder



Reverse bleeding

 

& another link - possibly one of his better videos..

 

Thanks everyone for the taking the time to run through this. I have learned a lot here. Will try the reverse bleed and see how it goes.

 

Just in case this helps Jim, the M/C bleeding technique used in this video "may " work for your M/C

I used this technique when I installed the "Clake One Light Clutch" on my sons Beta Enduro and it worked beautifully.

(Clake is an Incredible bit of Kit by the way, one finger clutch soooo easy to pull)

 

^^^Pete forgot to state that if you reverse bleed, you need to remove the mc cover (with adequate towling and water spray to keep fluid off paint) so injected fluid excess has somewhere to go.

 

Man, you see all these great innovations on these new bikes. Why am I messing with 35 year old stuff ? LOL.

Thanks for the video...good stuff.

 

Thanks! I am rigging up the syringe as we speak. Good call to have plenty of towels handy.

 

Well........I found the problem....it is me......

I had this return spring/cup in the M/C backwards. Jeez, I must be getting old.

BUT......because of this F-up I have learned a lot. Thanks everyone for schooling me!

I am going to still do the reverse bleed as instructed because the handle is still somewhat mushy. This is starting to remind me of the 5th gen VFR I used to have trying to bleed those crazy integrated brakes. Nightmare trying to get all the air out of them.

 

ah whoops. it happens.

 

yep, don't beat your self up about it... more than one of us have done this - lol

It just shows that with items like M/C rebuilding, doing a bench test before installing back on the bike is worthwhile and this is the reason why.
Great news and hope this is 3 steps forward.