Pictorial Help with Bleeding the Front and Rear Brakes on a Suzuki Across

For the complete How To on brake bleeding please refer to Brake Bleeding Made Easy


The donor bike here is a 1998 GSX250F Suzuki Across

Front Brake...

A few members have asked for a how to guide on replacing \ bleeding the brake fluid, so here it goes. The donor bike for this task is a 1998 GSX250F Suzuki Across and I am doing the front brake, the tools required are :

Piece of clear tubing
8mm spanner
Phillips head screw driver


I noticed recently that the front brake fluid reservoir looked if the fluid was getting darker, a sure sign of brake fluid that the fluid is contaminated. I opened the top of the reservoir and sure enough, the brake fluid was way overdue for to be drained and refilled.  Generally as a rule you should flush and refill the brake fluid once per year. Trust me, replacing a master cylinder or disk brake caliper is way, way more expensive and time consuming than simply flushing the brake fluid once a year. The front brake on the Across works on a simple principle of hydraulics, brake fluid is stored in a reservoir that feeds down through a piston to the caliper via the brake hose, the brake fluid is compressed using a piston within the master cylinder and when you apply your brake lever, the fluid is forced down to the caliper which pushes the caliper piston into the brake pads causing the pads to grip the disk. As with any brake bleeding, air is your enemy.Any air in the system will cause the brake to fail.

Step 1
Grab a rag and spread it around under the master cylinder, if brake fluid touches your paint work then its history. (

Step 2
Use your Phillips head screw driver to remove the 2 screws on the top of master cylinder and remove the cover and the diaphragm that sites underneath it. You will now see your brake fluid in the reservoir

Step 3
Locate your brake bleeding nipple on the caliper and remove the dust seal, using a 8mm open ended spanner, under the nipple about ½ a turn so that fluid can easily flow out ( there no need to completely remove it).

Step 4
Connect the clear hose to the caliper nipple and place the other end into the water bottle (hint - put 100 – 200 mls of water in the bottle so it’s sturdy on the ground)

Step 5
Pump the brake lever until all the fluid has been pumped through the system, you will see your master cylinder empty pretty quickly and the lever will stop pumping once air is in the system.  There will still be old brake fluid in the system, this will be bled though the system once you start pumping though the new fluid.

Step 6
Now using your 8mm spanner, close off the nipple leaving the clear hose attached, and then re-fill your master cylinder about 3/4 full with Dot 4 brake fluid.

Step 7
Give the brake lever 2 or 3 pumps. Then using an open ended spanner, loosen the nipple while keeping pressure on the lever. Old fluid will come out of the nipple and down the clear hose pipe in your jar of water and your brake lever will go soft. Tighten up the nipple then let go of the lever. Repeat this process until you see the new fluid starts to come out. Its very important you keep topping up the reservoir never allowing air to get in the lines.

Step 8
This process should be repeated until no air bubbles can be seen leaving the end of the clear hose;  That is: pump and hold the lever in, open the bleed nipple then tighten the nipple and release the lever. (Hint do not overfill the master cylinder as you may have to remove fluid later when you put the lid back on This is quick and simple way of replacing your brake fluid, you can use a brake bleeding kit, which will remove all the old fluid before fluid is added, but it’s easily done with a price of hose and water bottle. Make sure you clean up any spilled fluid with water and ensure you clean out your hose and bottle so it can be used again; Finally use some brake cleaner to remove any spilt fluid and remove all that brake dust.


Hints:
Spray the reservoir cap screws with CRC \wd40 and let it soak. Sometimes those screws vibrate so tight, you end up stripping them just trying to get them out - very frustrating! If you still have a spongy feel to the brake, or just poor performance, you probably still have air in the lines, repeat the bleed process until the air is complete removed from the system. Finally use a cable tie to secure the brake lever to the grip , ( brake applied) and leave for a few hours, this will force any residual air up to the master cylinder and ensure a good break.

 

Rear Brake ...

 

Check these pics, I have circled in red the bolts you need to remove your side cover

thanks

Chris