jhammons01

Guys, I just read 6 pages of threads concerning the Brake Master cylinder. The main thing that was common was the bleeding of the res after the master cylinder was replaced. One guy had trouble replacing the reservior on his new MC. Also info on bench bleeding. The MC I got has four hoses included. So i have that concept down.

What else should I look for BEFORE is start. I would like to know if it is a simple umbolt the old one and bolt on the the new one and bleed.

Thank you in advance.

oakback

I found it quite simple. Just be sure to bench bleed it, then bleed the system at all four wheels.

bingoboy

I didn't bench bleed when I did the master. Actually I did it so long ago that I didn't take the time to find out that I should. I ended up just bleeding forever from all 4 corners to clear it out. Oh, use flare wrenches so you don't chew up the connector thingies, and as a word of warning, getting some of the hardlines in/lined up can be a royal pain in the butt.

GTUser

You'll never get the air completely out of the system unless you do the bench bleed. Then when you are bleeding the brake lines at each wheel start from the furtherest wheel from the MC and move to the closest wheel as the last you bleed. This will allow you to bleed them using the smallest amount of fluid.

Keep the MC full of fluid and be sure to tightly close each bleeder valve after you've bled that line. You don't want to suck more air back into the system.

jhammons01

must be a simple procedure. Bleeding is not a problem for me. There are a lot of bleeding techiques learned with old VWs, New Kawasaki's, MTBs, to name a few

ddub

All I can say from my experience is save yourself the trouble and don't try to transplant the old reservoir to the new MC. I tried to do this, cracked it a little in removing it, and it leaked everywhere. New reservoir was MORE expensive than the MC was, and a new MC with reservoir included is sold by mazdatrix for a comparable cost. Just my .02 on it.

Also I didn't do any bench bleeding, just did the normal brake bleeding procedure after I was done installing it, wasn't a problem.

jhammons01

^^^ You're the second person to warn about that reservior breaking or just being difficult.

oakback

Yeah, my reservoir has a very small leak somewhere, I need to replace it. I wish I knew before that I could buy one with it already attached. Actually I thought it came like that, but was wrong.

jhammons01

The problem was Mazdatrix quoted me $150 bux for the MC!!! That is a lot of money. I paid just over $40 for the one I have from Kragen. If a new res is a little more than the MC I still only paid ± $90 bux. BUT I'll have the hassle of putting them together.

jhammons01

That was about as easy it gets. I can see how some have cracked the resovior. I used engine treatment oil (90 Weight) and lube'd up the o-rings and pressed the res right in. I bleed the brakes in the order described in the other threads. The back calipers have the two bleed valve (kinda strange). I did hte bottem ones first then the top ones. I used the Coke bottle and hose with the help of my nine year old pumping the peddle. Funny the old fluid looks just like a Coke in that bottle. Better make sure it is disposed of properly!!!

Now the brake peddle is nice and firm. Gotta to back to Kragen cause they gave me the wrong pads.

ddub

Glad you didn't crack the reservoir, but my problem wasn't putting it into the new MC, that was the easy part. Mine cracked on removal from the old MC because it would not BUDGE at all. I finally got it to start to move and one of the legs ended up cracking a very very tiny amount, not even noticeable. Put it in and started driving, noticed I was leaking fluid, that's when I knew it had cracked

And a new reservoir from Mazda was over $100 from what I remember :| Oh well, live and learn I suppose.

Oh yah and I only paid about $30 for my MC too, the reason the mtrix one is so much is because the reservoir is included. I still don't understand how that stupid plastic bottle could cost so much.

jhammons01

Thanks dDub.

One thing, there is not a thread in the archives concerning the MC at all. A good "how to" write up would really be useful. Don't ya think?

ddub

Yah that'd be nice for the people that may be confused. It was a pretty straight forward process, at least I felt it was, but I'm sure there'd be people interested in a step-by-step process as well as pictures.

I know once my friend and I get going on his project "free" TII we'll eventually be replacing the MC and doing a huge overall on the whole braking system. If there's nothing by then (and if I remember of course) I'll document our progress and post it here for those interested. It wont be for a while though, he still needs a job to be able to fund the rebuild of the motor, and that's #1 priority for him right now heh

Bob_The_Normal

dDub... you know about those things called junkyards?

Hint for the future... no one takes the brake cylinders, OR their reservoirs from junkyards. hehe

I swapped my reservoir, didn't crack... I was pretty careful... but it took me forever... what could be a 30 min job took me like 3 hours... f'ing reservoir. And I forgot to bench bleed.. god it took me like 2 days (wasn't driving it at the time) to bleed the thing out... I ordered speed bleeders the other day, I'm sure if I had them back when I did that whole thing it would've been a million times easier... but yeah, it's HARD to get it to bleed properly if you didn't bench bleed it.

--Gary

ddub

The junkyards around me never have 2nd gens... never. They have plenty of 1st gens, but never any 2nd.

jhammons01

I didn't bench bleed (well.... succesfully.....the little caps that were provided leaked like crazy all over the work bench) You just need to bleed a lot more than you are doing. I filled up a 20 oz pepsi bottle with old fliud. I used 2 1/2 of the 12 oz bottles of brake fluid during the process. Remember the bubbles have to travel all the way threw the lines and come out the other end. The left rear should be where most of the old fluid is let out. Use a vacuum hose on the valve and put the bottem down inside the fluid and then pump like crazy until you "SEE" the bubbles coming out. Then do the RR then the LF then the RF in that order and you will not see any improvement in the peddle until you bleed the very last one. And BTW the RF had the most air come out.

I bleed mine alot cause I wanted the old fluid to be gone. I kept my 9 year old pumping the peddle until I could see clear fluid coming out of the hose. The little 12 oz brake fluid is just $2.99 each so you shouldn't be worrying about using too much. Just bleed those things really good and you'll get a good firm peddle.