Shoutout to the old timer who showed me how to bleed brakes without a vacuum pump

I used to spend 20 minutes wrestling with my old Mityvac trying to get air out of brake lines on a rusty 2002 F-150. Kept getting bubbles no matter what. Last month at a shop in Tucson this guy in his 60s sees me cussing, walks over and tells me to ditch the pump, just pump the pedal by hand and crack the bleeder with a buddy. Did it his way on a '95 Civic and got a solid pedal in 3 minutes flat. Why did nobody teach me this in school? Any of you guys still use the old school two person method over the fancy tools?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamie_white20d ago

Man it's wild how often the simplest solution ends up being the best one, I see that everywhere from car repairs to home fixes. Seems like every generation overcomplicates stuff until someone reminds us the old way still works fine.

lane.eric19d ago

Same pattern in cooking too, the basic recipes always slap harder than the fancy ones.

jessica_ross3820d ago

Dude same here! That two person method saved me on a beat up '98 Tacoma last year. My buddy was all skeptical at first but after we got a rock hard pedal in like two pumps he was a believer. Old timers know what's up, they don't mess with all that fancy electronic stuff or the cheap vacuum pumps that never work right on rusty lines.