K11 Owners Group

Moondog · Last edited by Moondog on Sun Mar 16, 2008 6:50 am; edited 1 time in total

Changed all the hoses the winter on my bike and I am trying to bleed them out. The rear is being a devil and I can't seem to get any fluid to move. Crying or Very sad

I am using the Mighty-Vac method which worked ok on the front. The reservoir cap and seal are off, all banjo bolts are tight and connections are tight. Any ideas ladies and gentlemen?
_________________
"Badges? We don't need no stinking badges"!

I like the social aspect of riding. Rally's, socializing, drinking beer, fartin' and carrying on. Smile

2004 R1150RS
1996 K1100RS (moved on to new home)

rkildu · Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 8:25 am Post subject:

Be very careful here. It is easy to bottom out the piston in the cylinder if there is little or no fluid in the system and you depress the pedal too far. It can lodge at the bottom where the cylinder starts to taper and stick. We won't go into how I know...

You can free it up, but you have to remove the brake line off of the back and insert a piece of coat hanger wire or welding rod to push it free. All in all a messy job!

It seems to be susceptable to doing it again, too. I eventually had to just replace the entire master cylinder. $$$$$

If the pedal moves with little resistance and seems to bottom out. That could be your problem. It would block fluid flow.

Rod

Moondog · Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:31 am Post subject:

That would make sense. It has been "dry" for awhile, Maybe it stuck in the acuated postion. There is very little resistance. Thanks. I'll take a look.
_________________
"Badges? We don't need no stinking badges"!

I like the social aspect of riding. Rally's, socializing, drinking beer, fartin' and carrying on. Smile

2004 R1150RS
1996 K1100RS (moved on to new home)

Flying Duck · Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:54 am Post subject:

Moondog · Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 4:15 pm Post subject:

Well I checked the piston and it is moving in and out as designed. It is definetly being held up at the master cylinder. I think I can't get a good enough vacuum on it to pull it. The mighty-vac hoses don't seem to be to tight. There is always some air going around the bleed fitting and up the hose. Doesn't seem like the right hose size. Might have to trailer it to the beemer man and have him put it on the machine. Mean while I'll try again next weekend.
_________________
"Badges? We don't need no stinking badges"!

I like the social aspect of riding. Rally's, socializing, drinking beer, fartin' and carrying on. Smile

2004 R1150RS
1996 K1100RS (moved on to new home)

max · Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 5:24 pm Post subject:

Teflon plumbers' tape (used to seal the threads on pipework) usually helps seal the bleeders into the caliper so you don't get air in/vacuum lost that way; I've also used brake lube/grease (special brake-fluid safe crease for reassembling pistons into calipers) for this too, but eventually it gets sucked through and you end up with air again...

HTH

Max

Michael · Joined: 04 Nov 2007 Posts: 23 Location: WATERFORD, MI

I can add to the forum instead of using it for answers. Moondog, I did the same thing on my 93' 1100rs. I could not get the rear brakes to bleed at all! Question

I could not see any fluid coming out of the reservoir I didn't so any fluid getting into the system anywhere. Evil or Very Mad

I tried three different times before I did something different and got somewhere.

This is what I had to do (a little unconventional Question

). I remove the bleeding screw off the the ABS and back filled the lines by using a friend with a funnel to drop fluid in the bleeder port. I would push down on the pedal and as I would bring it up he would add fluid to the port. Did this several times until it looked like it was full and then opened the rear caliper bleeder. Fluid started draining from the bleeder port on the ABS to the rear caliper and we still added fluid as it was dropping out of the ABS bleeder screw port. I was like we were gravity feeding the line from the ABS unit to the caliper. We let fluid drain from the caliper bleeder port for a little bit. We closed the caliper bleeder and the ABS bleeded. We tried pump the pedal a few times, held it down (it still went all the way down) cracked the ABS bleeded. It bubbled. Did this a few times. Took off the ABS bleeder again and added more fluid with a funnel until it was full again. I left the bleeder screw off and pumped the pedal slowly and the system BURPED several times and the fluid was dropping, so we added more several times while just slowly pumping and giggling the pedal makeing sure that there was always fluid in the ABS bleeder screw port.

Again - I did this because I was out of options on trying to bleed the system and this as unconventional - just thought I'd try something. Finally after about an hour of doing this "song and dance" and thinking I got all the air out of the system I put the ABS bleeder screw in, tightened it up. and pumped the pedal some more. Held the pedal and opened the port and a little air came out again. Closed the port and pumped some more, opened the bleeding port in the ABS. Did this several time and then the pedal stiffened up! I can't believe it, I think I've got brakes. They started to bleed properly and fluid began to disappear from the resurvoir. I bleed the system from the ABS, then the caliper and then back to the ABS. The system was finally working like it should. I have never had a harder time bleeding brakes in my life. Wink

I don't know if this will help you but I worked for me - goodluck!
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Michael
93' K1100RS

Moondog · Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:32 pm Post subject:

I'll give it a try. Anything is better then paying the MAN to do it.
_________________
"Badges? We don't need no stinking badges"!

I like the social aspect of riding. Rally's, socializing, drinking beer, fartin' and carrying on. Smile

2004 R1150RS
1996 K1100RS (moved on to new home)

Moondog · Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 8:16 pm Post subject: