how many speed bleeders?

[BigDBass]

Gonna order speed bleeders for my brakes. Do I need a total of 4 or 8 bleeders for my stock calipers?

[norustscott]

just four...replace the ones on the top...

[trekkor]

I have all 8. Why would you skip the lowers?

( they are not for decoration )

KT

[iamchappy]

Dan's running with the stock brakes I bled them when he was up here picking up the car. But I would also like to know why only 4.

[norustscott]

"Speed Bleeder Nipples (optional. If you get them, get 4. One for each caliper)"
"
My final recommendation is to replace the bleeder nipples with speed bleeders. These things are worth their weight in gold. If your calipers have both an upper and lower set, you need replace only the upper ones."

From the the rear brake rebuild article on Pelican. My own thought is that air will seek higher ground...lol...

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Air bubbles rise. If you are bleeding to get the air out, you only need to use the top bleeders. The lower ones seem to be to help get all the old fluid out faster when you flush (change) the brake fluid. This is done much less frequently than bleeding (theoretically), so using the more-$$ speed bleeders on the bottom fittings seems to be a waste of money.

Unless you want to use 'em--they won't hurt anything! And they could make your bi-annual brake flush take less time...

--DD

[BigDBass]

Thanks guys. I'll probably go for all 8 just for the sake of thoroughness. So when it comes time to install these, is brake fluid gonna squirt all over the place or will it just be a little leakage as long as the brake pedal isn't being pumped or pimped?

[norustscott]

no.. you need to put a hose on the bleeder and a catch can....i had to run a whole can of ATE blue before getting all of the air out...and one at a time....and go slow with the pedal...

[BigDBass]

I mean just the installation of the speedbleeders, not the bleeding process itself.

[norustscott]

ah...then it will just weep a little....gravity will cause it to drain. put something down and work fast...lol

[iamchappy]

I LOVE the Speed Bleeders. Best bang for the buck.

[Matt Meyer]

This may seem obvious but .... When fluid is leaking out keep the reservoir full. Once air gets into the master cylinder or proportioning valve bleeding becomes much more difficult.

I don’t know if this will work to minimize brake fluid leakage but I’d try it. Hook up your bleeding kit to one of the bleeders and bleed fluid out until the brake pedal is fully depressed. Then hold the pedal fully down with a 2x4 or a rod, be creative.

With the pedal fully depressed and the reservoir cap on replace the bleeders one at a time. Check the reservoir with all bleeders closed often.

After you are done be sure to bleed the brakes.

IIRC the Haynes manual says something about keeping the brake pedal depressed and a special Porsche tool to do it.

[jsteele22]

From someone who [I]HATES[/I} brake fluid :

Have you thought about getting a pressure bleeder (from our generous hosts at PP) ? I got one and it is indescribably better than anything else I've ever used on brakes. You dump a quart of fluid in the reservoir, pump it up to the desired pressure, and then one by one you can open the bleed niupples and a whooshing stream of fluid comes out (use a short hose to catch it.) Sludge, bubbles, grit, whatever don't stand a chance. And you can do it by yourself, no brake pumping involved.

[smontanaro]

Silly question perhaps, but where do you get speed bleeders? The PP
catalog doesn't list any for 914s or 914/6s. They list several for various
911s. You'd think if they worked on 914s they'd show up there as well.

Thx,

Skip

[BigDBass]

Hi Skip,
PP has them with part number PEL-SB7100.
You can also get them directly from speedbleeder.com, I believe, but I want to support the this site for giving us a place to "hide"