Other than the gravity slaves one anyone got one without the kit in use. cheers
tails - I sold my kit (as you probs know 😆 ). anyway, on my new xt's, procudure goes like this :
remove lock on grip, slide lever out to end of bar and clamp so reservoir horziontal. gaffer tape a flattish tupperware (clean) under lever area (if you do this with it out near bar end you don't get fluid on shifters etc), remove cover and membrane. ring spanner on caliper nipple, plastic hose (fish tank pump dia fits a treat) onto bleed nipple with big plastic syringe on the end, filled with mineral oil. undo bleed nipple abot 1/3 of a turn, gently squeeze fluid through for a good 20 sec until syringe nearly empty, tighten nipple while keeping some syringe pressure on. take it all apart and sorted !
sounds good thanks
other bit I forgot to mention was to take out the pads and replace with either a proper pad spacer, or, in my case a few big washers wrapped in gaffer tape to the same thickness as normal pads plus rotor. Doing this allows you to give the lever a few squeezes at the end (once the bleed nipple is tight) which lets any last wee bubbles out the lever area.
For some reason the new generation xt's also then benefit from a quick bleed down the way afterwards - see other posts. only adds on 5 mins to the job and IMO makes a significant difference to the feel of the brakes.
I was really dissapointed with mine from new till I researched and spent an hour or 2 fiddling and getting the bleed and freestroke etc set up - now they are awesome 😛
I have those yellow spacers still. So your saying bleed bottom up then top down?
tails - yes. I found that although I totaly flooded the brakes from bottom up, when I then did it down the way I got a few bubbles out the caliper. Could also be sorted by taking the caliper off the frame and hanging vertically and shaking about a bit, but that seemed too much work and potentially floor messy !
disaster don't work for shit and to think i did them from new. If ionly there was a bike shop that was on good within pushing distance!!
tails - sorry to hear that - where are you ??
I live in cambridgeshire. I have tried top down which seemed to work but no where near as good as the original bleed and set up I did, the problem with bottom up is I could not get the syringe to force the fluid up.
I think I'll take them to a shop as it is such a messy job but the nearest good one is a fair trek.
when you were bleeding from bottom up, I take it you had the reservoir cover off and membrane out ? how much did you undo the bleed nipple when you had the syringe on ?
yeah I did everything you speak of and nipple was undone enough for fluid to drain out.
weird - all I can think is there is a big airlock in the caliper which is stopping the fluid going up the way.....maybe its bike shop time as you say.. 😥
I'm sure I could do it if I really wanted, just I gave up enjoying spannering a while ago to the point I ride single speed and try to buy components that require little maintenance hence the shimano brakes but they have been on a couple of frames now so it's to be expected.
Thanks for your help.