Brake fluid replacement

Just did the every 2 years brake fluid change on the 98 5th gen. It was not that bad was around 3 hours total in the garage with the heaters on of course.
I'm sure this has been covered but i figured some new owners may want to know.
Manual says you will need 16oz of DOT4 I repeat DOT4 ONLY. I ended up using a whole can of 32oz. As I flushed plenty through to make sure I got all the old out. Which most of it looked good coming out I only saw some brownish twice. I bought the bike last year so I have no idea when / if it was last done. I would guess the majority of bike owners never replace fluid and only add some when needed. Its just not something you think about. And it is fine until its too late and starts gumming up your calipers and master cylinder all because you were too lazy to change it and spend 8 bucks on fluid.
Anyway I used a mighty vac vacuum pump and also finish off every valve with 5 or 6 manual bleeds ( hose in can) There were 8 bleed points if I remeber correctly. You will need a maunual for this as well unless someone has written up a how to as this is not a how to and more of a hey I did it and you should too. ( if not already keeping on schedule).

 

+1, big pain in the ass but well worth the effort both for keeping your hydraulic system in good shape and I felt a substantial differnece in brake feel when I got done.

 

Oh yea I also did the Clutch master and slave as well just as important as the brakes. And don't ya just love a hydraulic clutch - Butter-

 

Yeah, just love those hydraulic clutches! Not!

 

Good point Mastershake.
We all need a little reminder about this from time to time.

 

I have a love hate relationship with the hydraulic clutch. Smooth actuation and you don't have to adjust a cable constantly. Unfortunately, it lacks feel. Once your used to it, it really isn't a problem though.

 

I bought a MityVac to do my clutch/brakes but I was unhappy with how it worked so I made my own brake bleeder using a pickle jar, compression fittings, clear tubing and a mini wet-dry vac. It works a treat. Now it only takes me about 30 minutes to bleed everything from start to finish.



Rollin

 

Speed bleeders

Have replaced all the bleeders with "speed bleeders" i had them on all my bikes. Makes the bleeding pretty easy and relatively quick.

order of bleeding
- Front Brake
- Right outer
- Left outer
- Rear brake
- Right Center Front
- Left Center Front
- (remove and Tilt the left Capiler to 15 degrees - to release any air bubbles to the PCV)
- PCV
- (remove wheel and rear caliper, move to 2 o'clock position)
- Rear Center
- Rear Outer

used about 20oz

 

Great information, I will be doing this soon.