Hope brake bleeding advice needed please

Hi chaps,

I need to bleed my brakes, and as I have changed the hoses on my Tech V2s they now have less oil in the system compared with new, so my question is, do I need to push the pads back in before I begin the bleed process, because if I don’t it’ll mean more oil in the brakes than is needed? or does it not matter?

Cheers 😀

Dosn’t matter – the pads will push out when you bleed them anyway

Ah, cool, thanks TJ 😀

You were correct in the first place: it does matter.

You have to push the pads/pistons back otherwise you’ll over-fill the system. You can bleed with pistons extended as long as you push them back flush with the caliper (and catch and excess fluid at the MC) immediately before you refit the diaphragm and MC cap. It’s never wise to bleed with the pads still in the caliper.

Disagree strongly threefish

When you bleed a set of hopes the pistons push out. To bleed them witht eh pistons back you would have to wedge them back with something solid. Doing what you suggest will leave you with a low level of fluid in the master cylinder if the pads are part worn. Low enough that its possible to get air in ( its very hard to remove all air from under the diaphram)

Doing as I suggest is no issue. If you fit new pads you might have to remove a bit of fluid from the system but that is all. Its better to have the system full of fluid with the pads in the position they will be in use

Disagree strongly threefish

No surprise there. I don’t care that you disagree, so won’t bother arguing with you. I stand by my original post.

I’ve never had a set of Hope pistons push back out during bleeding unless the bleed nipple wasn’t opened properly before pumping the lever!

what carlos said.
Remove the wheel and pads in case the hose pops off and contaminates them.
push the pistons home et voila!

Push them back or you’ll find a new set of pads won’t fit in there as the system is overfilled. Chances are this will happen when you are in the middle of nowhere, you’ll attempt to let some fluid out to compensate and dump the lot leaving you brake-less. It’s also worth cleaning around the cylinders with cotton buds or similar to clear any build up of dust and grit. Overfilling will also add weight and you’ll probably need to run your fork firmer to balance that out too. A whole world of trouble.

Neil

I’ll be using the Hope bleed kit if this makes a difference?

The instructions tell you to pull the levers every 5 seconds, but does this push on the pads or not as the bleed nipple is open and the pressure goes that direction instead?

Hope this helps mate.

So the hope vids don’t show him pushing the pads back?

My main concern is that because I have changed the hoses the brake system now doesn’t have the same amount of fluid in them, so my thinking was that if I were to suddenly bleed them, they would have more fluid in them than before I changed the hoses?

If it was a straight bleed with nothing changed then I wouldn’t be changing the fluid levels, just replacing it, but this way do I have a problem if I don’t push the pads back?

Thanks for all your input so far 😀

Remove the pads and wedge a piece of wood (or something that won’t damage the pistons) between the pistons. Bleed them and see how it feels.
If the brakes don’t feel right, do the same again but push the pistons back in first, then bleed.
Personally, I always push the pistons back in before I bleed the system…

i did mine yesterday and put goodridge hoses on, it might not be technically the correct way of doing it, but i did as follows to bleed – remove pads from calliper, put bleed kit on, undo bleed nipple, flush system until no more air, lock off the bleed nipple, whilst top cap is off push pistons back in, roll on diaphram, replace cap, replace pads.

I wrapped an old rag around the lever. When you push the pistons back in, the resevoir will overflow, but its no drama, it gets caught by the rag. It might not be right but this way has worked every time for me thus far so must be doing something correct

ChrisA – Member
i did mine yesterday and put goodridge hoses on, it might not be technically the correct way of doing it, but i did as follows to bleed – remove pads from calliper, put bleed kit on, undo bleed nipple, flush system until no more air, lock off the bleed nipple, whilst top cap is off push pistons back in, roll on diaphram, replace cap, replace pads.

I wrapped an old rag around the lever. When you push the pistons back in, the resevoir will overflow, but its no drama, it gets caught by the rag. It might not be right but this way has worked every time for me thus far so must be doing something correct

Thanks ChrisA, sounds like a plan 😀

Try these[/url] instructions. More or less as ChrisA says, except I added a few pictures. They’ve served me, and all the folk who’s Hopes I’ve serviced, very well for the last seven or eight years. The Tech lever has a minor difference that is covered in the YouTube video linked above. The basic bleed process is covered in this YouTube video; in which Nick also states, although without physically demonstrating, that the pistons should be pushed back before rolling the diaphragm on.