Kerry: Thanks for your "Replace Brake Fluid&quo

[RedShift]

Kerry,

Just a note of appreciation for your Replacing the Brake Fluid on a Suzuki GS500 web page.  It had been overdue for about 9 months.  I read through your explanation and went at it complete with bottle top drilled with the drain hose.  Thanks -- you explained it better than the Clymer manual.  (I know it takes a bit of planning to photo shoot the process -- nice job.)

Just had a couple of comments to perhaps add to your explanation.  For what it's worth:

• I also found that there was a tendency for the spent liquid to be pulled back into the bleed nipple.  I found that manually tightening the nipple after each squeeze of the brake lever, then opening it again on the compression stroke solved that problem.  Nice comment.
• There was no problem with the front, but when I put the hose on the rear, it went on easier (due to a rich coating of brake fluid lining the interior) but showed air bubbles appearing.  Don't know for sure if it came from the line but suspect not.  Likely culprit was being pulled in via the nipple-hose interface.  A firm push of the rear brake pedal (and comment above) seemed to solve the issue.
• The bottle of Bel-Ray DOT 4 I had gave me 12 fl.oz., of which I only used 6 oz.  As per your recommendation, I put the dirty fluid in with the 6 oz. I didn't use as it'll go bad before I need to do this again. I'll be sure to recycle.  Next time I'll see if I can get a 6 or 8 oz. bottle so I don't waste as much.
• I siphoned out a majority of liquid in the reservoir before pouring in fresh.  A note a month or so back suggested it.  If you've got a turkey baster you no longer need, it does speed the process along.
• Once I got all the bits together, the whole process took less than 30 minutes.[/list:u]
  Hey, flushing the lines went slick and once again I experienced the pleasure of mastering motorcycle maintenance.  Thanks for the assist.  
  
  Roy...

[Kerry]

You're most welcome!  Glad to help.  

[Phaedrus]

Bump 

I would also like to comment on how helpful Kerry's tutorial on flushing the brake fluid is. I am not the most mechanical person on Earth, and I was able to do it easily. I could even stop afterwards, and it felt better too.

Changing the brake fluid...GOOD!

Changing the brake fluid with Kerry's tutorial... GREAT!

[luksi]

Here,Here...I just changed mine using Kerry's directions and it was a breeze.  I don't know how much a shop charges but it made my day doing this myself and knowing that it didn't cost anything but a few bucks for DOT4 and tubing.

[Mandres]

I used that same tutorial, it worked out beautifully.  The hardest part was finding the correct sized tubing to fit on the caliper nipple.  I don't remember off-hand what the correct size is but I'll check tonight.

-M