I was thinking about how I'm going to do the overhaul on my Catalina's brakes this weekend to minimize the amount of work (jacking the car up) I need to do, and I'm somewhat puzzled on a couple of things.
I'll be replacing the rear axle rubber line, the two wheel cylinders, both calipers and both front rubber lines. What is the best order to do this? I know that once I pop a rubber line off, basically all of the fluid in the line from the master cylinder down will pour out. My gut says to start on the rear axle, then do the fronts in the order you would bleed them in. Would I replace everything, then go back through and bleed all four corners, or can the individual axles be bled as they are finished, without affecting the other axle?
I know the master cylinder will lose its bench bleed when I drain the fluid, will it need re-bench bled, or can you bleed it while it's still on the car?
Thanks!
All the fluid is gonna be gone so there is no point in trying to salvage any of it as it's probably dirty anyways. Replace everything then go bleed it in order of most opposite to the master brake cylinder and then the other rear and then opposite to front and lastly closest to.
I've never worked in a particular order when doing brakes, don't think it really matters. As far as losing all of the fluid what I generally do is fold some plastic wrap around the end of the metal pipe and secure with a rubber band. That keeps all the fluid from draining out and you don't have to bench bleed the master cylinder, just do a regular bleed to flush the old fluid out. (Unless of course the master cylinder is being replaced as well.)
When bleeding you want to start with the wheel farthest from the master cylinder and work your way back to it.
