[V8] da bomb

[Jeremy Ward]

It's funny, I was installing my new bomb this week and was actually thinking
I should being careful not to cause premature failure on the high pressure
line (pump to bomb).  So far, so good! ;-)

I got my bomb and 2 cans of pentosin from Dan O'Dell when I drove up to
Seattle and bought his Speedline wheels a while back.  I had also picked up
4 new OEM brake lines and a can of DOT4 from SJM and had been
procrastinating installing them because I didn't have the proper tools to
bleed the brake lines.

I ended up buying a $40 vacuum operated tool from the Zone, which included
the reservoir and fittings for 'one-man brake bleeding'.  Although the fluid
container is painfully small (7oz), it worked well to vacuum the fluid
(pentosin) out of the power steering reservoir, as opposed to letting it
leak all over the ground when you disconnect the bomb.  I set aside the old
stuff in a container, planning to reuse if necessary, but ended up putting
the 2 new cans in there.  That filled it pretty full, so I didn't have to
reuse any, but I did set it aside if I need to add any later on.  The 'old'
fluid was put in not that long ago when I lost a high pressure fitting on a
power steering hose.

The vacuum tool worked pretty well to bleed the brakes.  First I used it to
vacuum the old DOT4 brake fluid form its reservoir.  I put fresh fluid in
the reservoir, and used the tool at the caliper to pull fresh fluid through
the brake lines.  I also found it made a huge difference to add Teflon tape
to the threads of the bleeder valves; without it, it lost vacuum pretty
quickly.

The break pressure accumulator (bomb) and the brake lines are very easy
do-it-yourself projects.  I was thinking about doing a write-up, but the
bomb is already in the knowledgebase, and the brake lines were a no brainer.
The only 'gotcha' is to make sure the rear suspension is at normal height
(i.e. car not jacked up with spring totally uncompressed); the rear brake
line is so short that if you install it with the car jacked up and then drop
it back down, it will live its (short) life under quite a bit of torsion.
Thanks to Scott Mockry for the tip when I bought the parts from him!

Cheers,

- Jeremy

-----Original Message-----
From: v8-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:v8-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of
dsaad at icehouse.net
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2005 10:24 AM
To: V8 at audifans.com
Subject: [V8] da bomb

I finally got my PS hose back from Spokane Hose.
It turns out my shipping clerk forgot to put a return address on the box -
so it
took a few extra days and added overnight shipping costs.

They did the repair for free, and I remain happy with their quality and
service.
I also put on the new bomb, and sure enough the pulsation in the wheel is
gone.
The brake pedal feel is much different too. Looks like my old bomb was in
pretty
bad shape.

I was also quite amazed at how little hydraulic oil I have left from my 5
gallon
bucket. When I got the oil, I flushed the system several times, and then had
two
more "hose events" where I just dumped the oil in the tank when doing the
repair.
If I was using Pento$in I probably would have had to reuse the old oil.
Ouch.

So - my goat leggings are back on :-)

Dave

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