Bleeding/flushing the brakes

[oxbrain]

I'm going to start tearing apart my brake lines tommorow. I was talking with my father and he mentioned that it would be best to not let the MC empty because I would have to bleed that. The haynes manual doesn't say anything about bleeding the MC, so I hadn't even thought of it. Is this something that I should worry about, or is it not required on the festiva?

The plan now is to drain the lines first so they are completely empty, then install the aspire hoses and refill.

[gomer]

I wouldn't worry about it... you're already going to be bleeding the downstream parts (lines/calipers/wheel cyls.) this will just be a little more air to purge... when you buy a new master cylinder there is always a plastic fitting for each port with a small length of hose that allows you to recirculate fluid from the mc line out back to the resovoir until it is fully bled * , that is what your father is thinking about. The only thing I'd be concerned about is leaving the MC dry for too long ,, it may not be good for any "O" rings inside.

* You can always go into your local auto parts store and say "I bought a Festy MC at your XXXXXXX location xx days ago and it didn't have the plastic tube ,, could you give me one? (the companies that rebuild mc's almost always give extra tubes to the stores ,, just as the electronic ignition module manufacurers provide extra heat sink grease in case their box is missing it)

[AlaskaFestivaGuy]

brake bleeding

I just today rebuilt calipers (using Napa kits) and put in a rebuilt master cylinder, since I was having to stop to top off with brake fluid before I had to stop for gas. I did NOT bleed the MC in any way, just put in fluid and started pumping.

I used a gadget I bought somewhere that's nothing but an 18" piece of clear tubing that fits on the bleed valve with a little check valve on the other end. Just pump a few times, run around to the wheel, and check for bubbles. When there are no more bubbles, tighten it up and move to the next wheel. Bleeding whole car on my own took no more than 10 minutes starting with a half-empty system.

While doing this, I found my left ball joint (at the end of the steering rack) was about to let go, even though the boot was in perfect condition.

[oxbrain]

I'm going to be rebuilding the brakes, but I want to get everything on the car and working before I do repair to it.