SL/R107: Rear brake bleeding on '79 450SL?
01-16-2005, 04:36 PM
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'03 SLK320, '04 BMW 330i, '11 BMW 535i, '13 Land Rover LR4
Rear brake bleeding on '79 450SL?
My brother and I just swapped out the rear pads on my '79 450SL, and then went to bleed the rear brakes. Sucked the old fluid out of the reservoir, poured some fresh fluid in, went to start with the right rear. Doing the normal pump-and-bleed procedure, my brother on the caliper bleed screw and me on the pedal. After the first 15 or 20 pumps/bleeds, the pedal stopped pumping back up and we stopped getting fluid out of the bleed screw. 
So, we took a closer look at the master cylinder and found that it has different compartments for the front and rear brakes. There's only one place to fill (which seems to go to the front brakes portion of the MC), and then there's a little vent from the top of the rear reservoir back to the MC cap. I don't know how to get fluid from the main/front portion of the MC reservoir to the rear portion of the MC reservoir.
Searching a bit on line, the only thing that seemed possibly related I found here: https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...brake+bleeding . However, as far as I can see the '79 doesn't have ABS so it doesn't seem that could be the problem, as it was in that guy's case.
So, what trick are we missing to get the rear reservoir to fill up so we can bleed the brakes? I appreciate any assistance.
So, we took a closer look at the master cylinder and found that it has different compartments for the front and rear brakes. There's only one place to fill (which seems to go to the front brakes portion of the MC), and then there's a little vent from the top of the rear reservoir back to the MC cap. I don't know how to get fluid from the main/front portion of the MC reservoir to the rear portion of the MC reservoir.
Searching a bit on line, the only thing that seemed possibly related I found here: https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...brake+bleeding . However, as far as I can see the '79 doesn't have ABS so it doesn't seem that could be the problem, as it was in that guy's case.
So, what trick are we missing to get the rear reservoir to fill up so we can bleed the brakes? I appreciate any assistance.
01-28-2005, 09:40 AM
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'81 380SL/dual cam chain-LT4 vette-Z06 ('03) vette-I need a bigger garage....
Fill the one reservoir completely so that fluid runs over the top of the dividing partition inside the housing to fill the other. Atleast that is the way it worked on mine. On an aside note, I had trouble bleeding the brakes, even with the 'Phoenix injector system' so I used a simple method; I just opened the screw and let the fluid drip for a half hour or so. It worked like a charm. One person can try this method if you have no one else to help. 
