dave6666
Enthusiast
I have had many inquiries in my tenure here at this forum about the Mityvac equipment I use. What I have, how and what I use it for etc. So here it is in all it's glory; pics and explanation.
A comment before I get into the the juicy parts. There are some that say vacuum bleeding brakes or other hydraulic systems is improper. Or ineffective. Or insert your own key word there. To you I say speak correctly of me because if so, I have therefore been successfully working on cars improperly for the past 44 years.
The reason I chose the equipment I did:
-> I can do all of the fluid work on my vehicle by myself.
-> It is not expensive equipment.
-> I do not like pressurizing the plastic brake fluid reservoirs on cars. Yes, they are designed to take some pressure, but their normal state is zero pressure. Wanna find out if yours is sturdy enough for 15 psi? Sure, why not pump it up with brake fluid LOL.
The following is the list of automotive fluid servicing I use my equipment for:
-> Draining the power steering fluid reservoir for changing the fluid.
-> Refilling the tranny after a fluid drain.
-> Draining and refilling the differential.
-> Flushing/bleeding the brakes/clutch.
-> Draining coolant reservoirs/tanks.
One final comment before diving into the goods here. There are faster methods for some of the things I do with my Mityvac equipment. It may mean a helper - 2 people involved - or more advanced or specialized equipment that costs more. If you are a track rat doing stuff between sessions then this may not be for you. Or if you own a shop and time is money. The weekend warrior that likes to spend an afternoon or a few evenings doing some tweaking on his/her baby? Perfect.
I bought 3 pieces of stuff. The first is 07300 Fluid Extractor. I paid $91.34 shipped from ebay new in the box.
It is basically a vacuum source powered by your air compressor, and a fluid catch tank that holds a about 2-1/2 gallons or so. BTW, it uses very little air. Most any home compressor will run this thing.
You can use it as is and **** fluid into it, or just use it as a vacuum source for other applications. I do both.
Here is the air hose connected to the vacuum pump. That's all it takes to make this thing go.
The second item I bought is 4050 Silverline Plus Automotive Kit. It has all kinds of adapters to connect to stuff, a small reservoir cup, some tubing, and a combination pressure/vacuum hand pump.
So if you're thinking why do I need 2 vacuum pumps, the big one above and this hand powered one... You want to spend that lovely afternoon pumping this thing or sipping a cool one watching the air powered pump work? Plus, this has the pressure pump feature which I use to transfer fluids. Also handy for small vacuum jobs if you don't want to drag out the air hose.
I paid $73.05 shipped from ebay new in the box.
Here's the selector knob on the end of the pump to switch between creating a vacuum or pressure with the pump.
The final item is a 16 oz fluid reservoir item number 6005. I use it when I need to accurately monitor fluid being extracted - can't see small amounts in the biggee above - or if there isn't enough to get the big one dirty. It is also used to pump the fluid into things.
I paid $19.90 shipped from Toolsource dot com new in the box.
POWER STEERING FLUID FLUSH
An easy way to flush your power steering without undoing hoses or getting very dirty is to drain the pump reservoir and refill with fresh fluid, start the car and run the wheel back and forth a few times to cycle the fluid around, and then drain and refill again. Do that 4 times. Just be sure to shut the car off when draining and filling the reservoir.
Here's the equipment setup. I use the big air powered reservoir for the vacuum source, but like a good look at the fluid I'm sucking out of the power steering pump. So I connect the small bottle to the big tank and it ***** the fluid into the small bottle where I can swish it around and look for floaties or impurities.
The big tank comes with several sizes of hard plastic tubing, rubber grommets, and some more flexible clear rubber tubing. Find the piece of hard plastic tubing that fits inside of the clear rubber tubing, and slip the rubber grommet on one end of it as so.
Stick the grommet in the top of the big tank as so.
Now take a piece of the clear rubber tubing and slip it over the other end of the hard plastic tube as so.
The other end of that flexible tubing goes to the cap of the small bottle. And then the remaining port on the cap of the small bottle should have yet another piece of the flexible tubing on it. Should look like this when done.
***NOTE ON SMALL BOTTLE***
Leave the rubber dip tube off when using it as a fluid catch bottle. The dip tube is only needed for pumping fluids.
Pull the rubber tube off if it is on.
To **** out the power steering reservoir just start the air to the big tank and stick the hose off the small bottle into the power steering reservoir. The small bottle comes with a hanging hook that is useful, as if the bottle falls over (or overfills...) it will short circuit to the big tank giving you 2 things to drain and clean later. Just be sure to watch for spillage if you are accident prone.
Refill the reservoir, start the car and cycle the steering. Shut off the car and repeat the above 3 times.
Ensure your power steering caps is tight and wipe up any spills.
FILLING THE TRANSMISSION
The tranny can of course be drained via the drain plug. But there is no access to pour the new fluid in as the tranny is wedged up in the tunnel. Use the pump Luke... use the pump.
Don't need the big tank on this job. Just the small bottle and the hand pump.
Set the selector on the hand pump to pressure. Make sure the dip tube is on the bottle cap. Connect the pump to the cap port that does NOT have the dip tube.
Should look like this when ready.
Fill the bottle with tranny oil, stick the hose from the bottle into the open fill plug hole, and pump the hand pump. If you got all of the connections right, the air pressure you are generating will force the fluid from the bottle up and away into the tranny.
The tranny takes about 4 qts and the bottle holds 1/2 qt. Refill the bottle until you are done - the fluid will run out the fill plug. Wipe up the spillage and put the fill plug back in. Double check the torque on both the fill AND drain plugs.
BTW, my '01 took almost 4 qts, but not quite.
DIFFERENTIAL FLUID CHANGE
My differential has no drain plug, so I sucked it out using the big tank. I knew it would go slowly as the fluid is thick, and I knew it would be more than the small bottle would hold. So I went straight to the big tank with this one.
It took about an hour as that stuff is thick and I found the smallest (and most restrictive...) piece of the hard plastic tube snaked in the furthest into the diff.
So I didn't have to have the big tank basically stuck in the wheel well where I was working from, I took 3 pieces of the tubing to make a really long one so I could set the tank out of my way. Using the same setup as in the power steering above (minus the small bottle) I added the smaller hard plastic tube to the ones that were between the big tank and the little bottle. Need to make a connector for that? Here's how. It comes with these parts.
All in one pic with tons of hose. You can't see the bigger piece of hard plastic hose right off the big tank, but it is there.
Big tank -> med hard line -> flexible rubber line -> sm hard line -> stick in diff to ****
You can of course use these hoses and tubes in any combination you can connect them together. Just showing what I did.
To refill the diff use the tranny procedure above. Add the friction modifier first if you use it, then add the oil. Stop when it spills out. Wipe up the drips and torque your fill/drain plugs as applicable.
CLUTCH SLAVE BLEEDING OR FLUSH
Initial setup is the same as in the power steering above. I like the smaller bottle to see progress and the fluid in detail.
The one difference is instead of just poking a bare hose into the reservoir that has it's lid removed, you need to connect to the clutch bleeder port. Who designed that thing LOL. It's got a tiny hole in the end.
Do this. Comes with these parts.
Wedge that tapered rubber piece in the end of the bleeder and start the vacuum. Open the bleeder on the clutch slave and the fluid will flow.
***IMPORTANT NOTES***
-> DO NOT let the fluid reservoir on the car run dry. Bleed out some fluid, top off the reservoir. Bleed out some fluid, top off the reser.... You'll get the rhythm down.
-> You may notice air bubbles when bleeding. Even after a while. This is NORMAL. The reason why is that most bleeder screws do not seal well on the threads. You can be pulling air in through the threads, which goes straight into the bleed hose and NOT into the cylinder which has fluid being sucked out of it.
That right there is probably the single most argued point in vacuum bleeding versus pressure bleeding.
Folks, when I connect a negative pressure to a port to remove fluid and there is a slight addition of air due to leakage at that connection, the air is not going to go into the hydraulics system.
I'm sure however that some will come along and explain how it can and does, at which point I'll whoop out my nearly 30 years in chemical and mechanical engineering and spank you.
Back on subject, watch the reservoir level and you'll be fine. I usually just **** through one small bottle of fluid and say she's done.
Put the rubber diaphragm back in the reservoir and tighten the cap. Ensure that the bleeder screw is tight and wipe up any spills.
BRAKE BLEEDING OR FLUSH
The setup is the same as in the clutch slave bleeding with the exception of the end connection.
Use this to connect to the bleeder on the wheel caliper.
The bleeding sequence should be in your factory service manual. Not the owner's manual. You should work your way around the car at the calipers just like it says in the right order.
***FRIENDLY NOTES BASED ON MANY YEARS OF BLEEDING BRAKES THIS WAY***
-> I usually flush through 1 small can of fluid per bleeder. I do use the cheap stuff - Prestone DOT 4 from WalMart - but you'll have to decide what the correct amount is. Anyway, with 2 bleeders per caliper, that's 8 cans of fluid at $2.50 each.
-> I've noticed before on modern ABS vehicles that the bleeding can go very slowly, more noticeable on the rears. I attribute that to length of lines on the car, and maybe the ABS module flow restriction. So, to speed things up, while the bleeder screw is open and the Mityvac is sucking with the reservoir on the car having plenty of fresh fluid, I slowly depress the brake pedal in the car a few times to push the fluid while the sucker ***** it. 10 seconds per foot stroke, watch the reservoir on the car so it always has fluid. You'll get the rhythm down after the first time.
-> The rubber adapter that slips onto the bleeder will leak air. At least I've never been able to keep the air from streaming into the bleed hose. Just like was explained above, not a bit of that air is getting into the hydraulics system. I have removed the bleeder screw and coated the threads with silicone grease, as well as the end of the bleeder itself where the rubber adapter connects. Not worth the effort. I'm done after one can of fluid per bleeder, not when expecting to see no more bubbles.
-> The bleeders on the calipers have a built in rubber dust cap that self tethers itself to the bleeder. Kinda nice the cap won't go rolling away but makes it a PITA to get a wrench on the bleeder screw and turn it quickly one turn. The rubber tether wants to turn with the screw and there ain't room for it to turn so every time you take your wrench off the bleeder springs back. I took the bleeder screws completely out and with an Exacto knife cut the 2 sides apart trimming back so they would look good. Much easier to work on now.
-> I open the bleeder screw one full turn when bleeding.
And that folks is my Mityvac story, and where all the people that say I've been doing it all wrong for the past 44 years can chime in.
A comment before I get into the the juicy parts. There are some that say vacuum bleeding brakes or other hydraulic systems is improper. Or ineffective. Or insert your own key word there. To you I say speak correctly of me because if so, I have therefore been successfully working on cars improperly for the past 44 years.
The reason I chose the equipment I did:
-> I can do all of the fluid work on my vehicle by myself.
-> It is not expensive equipment.
-> I do not like pressurizing the plastic brake fluid reservoirs on cars. Yes, they are designed to take some pressure, but their normal state is zero pressure. Wanna find out if yours is sturdy enough for 15 psi? Sure, why not pump it up with brake fluid LOL.
The following is the list of automotive fluid servicing I use my equipment for:
-> Draining the power steering fluid reservoir for changing the fluid.
-> Refilling the tranny after a fluid drain.
-> Draining and refilling the differential.
-> Flushing/bleeding the brakes/clutch.
-> Draining coolant reservoirs/tanks.
One final comment before diving into the goods here. There are faster methods for some of the things I do with my Mityvac equipment. It may mean a helper - 2 people involved - or more advanced or specialized equipment that costs more. If you are a track rat doing stuff between sessions then this may not be for you. Or if you own a shop and time is money. The weekend warrior that likes to spend an afternoon or a few evenings doing some tweaking on his/her baby? Perfect.
I bought 3 pieces of stuff. The first is 07300 Fluid Extractor. I paid $91.34 shipped from ebay new in the box.
It is basically a vacuum source powered by your air compressor, and a fluid catch tank that holds a about 2-1/2 gallons or so. BTW, it uses very little air. Most any home compressor will run this thing.
You can use it as is and **** fluid into it, or just use it as a vacuum source for other applications. I do both.
You must be registered for see images
Here is the air hose connected to the vacuum pump. That's all it takes to make this thing go.
You must be registered for see images
The second item I bought is 4050 Silverline Plus Automotive Kit. It has all kinds of adapters to connect to stuff, a small reservoir cup, some tubing, and a combination pressure/vacuum hand pump.
So if you're thinking why do I need 2 vacuum pumps, the big one above and this hand powered one... You want to spend that lovely afternoon pumping this thing or sipping a cool one watching the air powered pump work? Plus, this has the pressure pump feature which I use to transfer fluids. Also handy for small vacuum jobs if you don't want to drag out the air hose.
I paid $73.05 shipped from ebay new in the box.
You must be registered for see images
Here's the selector knob on the end of the pump to switch between creating a vacuum or pressure with the pump.
You must be registered for see images
The final item is a 16 oz fluid reservoir item number 6005. I use it when I need to accurately monitor fluid being extracted - can't see small amounts in the biggee above - or if there isn't enough to get the big one dirty. It is also used to pump the fluid into things.
I paid $19.90 shipped from Toolsource dot com new in the box.
You must be registered for see images
POWER STEERING FLUID FLUSH
An easy way to flush your power steering without undoing hoses or getting very dirty is to drain the pump reservoir and refill with fresh fluid, start the car and run the wheel back and forth a few times to cycle the fluid around, and then drain and refill again. Do that 4 times. Just be sure to shut the car off when draining and filling the reservoir.
Here's the equipment setup. I use the big air powered reservoir for the vacuum source, but like a good look at the fluid I'm sucking out of the power steering pump. So I connect the small bottle to the big tank and it ***** the fluid into the small bottle where I can swish it around and look for floaties or impurities.
The big tank comes with several sizes of hard plastic tubing, rubber grommets, and some more flexible clear rubber tubing. Find the piece of hard plastic tubing that fits inside of the clear rubber tubing, and slip the rubber grommet on one end of it as so.
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
Stick the grommet in the top of the big tank as so.
You must be registered for see images
Now take a piece of the clear rubber tubing and slip it over the other end of the hard plastic tube as so.
You must be registered for see images
The other end of that flexible tubing goes to the cap of the small bottle. And then the remaining port on the cap of the small bottle should have yet another piece of the flexible tubing on it. Should look like this when done.
You must be registered for see images
***NOTE ON SMALL BOTTLE***
Leave the rubber dip tube off when using it as a fluid catch bottle. The dip tube is only needed for pumping fluids.
Pull the rubber tube off if it is on.
You must be registered for see images
To **** out the power steering reservoir just start the air to the big tank and stick the hose off the small bottle into the power steering reservoir. The small bottle comes with a hanging hook that is useful, as if the bottle falls over (or overfills...) it will short circuit to the big tank giving you 2 things to drain and clean later. Just be sure to watch for spillage if you are accident prone.
Refill the reservoir, start the car and cycle the steering. Shut off the car and repeat the above 3 times.
Ensure your power steering caps is tight and wipe up any spills.
FILLING THE TRANSMISSION
The tranny can of course be drained via the drain plug. But there is no access to pour the new fluid in as the tranny is wedged up in the tunnel. Use the pump Luke... use the pump.
Don't need the big tank on this job. Just the small bottle and the hand pump.
Set the selector on the hand pump to pressure. Make sure the dip tube is on the bottle cap. Connect the pump to the cap port that does NOT have the dip tube.
Should look like this when ready.
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
Fill the bottle with tranny oil, stick the hose from the bottle into the open fill plug hole, and pump the hand pump. If you got all of the connections right, the air pressure you are generating will force the fluid from the bottle up and away into the tranny.
The tranny takes about 4 qts and the bottle holds 1/2 qt. Refill the bottle until you are done - the fluid will run out the fill plug. Wipe up the spillage and put the fill plug back in. Double check the torque on both the fill AND drain plugs.
BTW, my '01 took almost 4 qts, but not quite.
DIFFERENTIAL FLUID CHANGE
My differential has no drain plug, so I sucked it out using the big tank. I knew it would go slowly as the fluid is thick, and I knew it would be more than the small bottle would hold. So I went straight to the big tank with this one.
It took about an hour as that stuff is thick and I found the smallest (and most restrictive...) piece of the hard plastic tube snaked in the furthest into the diff.
So I didn't have to have the big tank basically stuck in the wheel well where I was working from, I took 3 pieces of the tubing to make a really long one so I could set the tank out of my way. Using the same setup as in the power steering above (minus the small bottle) I added the smaller hard plastic tube to the ones that were between the big tank and the little bottle. Need to make a connector for that? Here's how. It comes with these parts.
You must be registered for see images
All in one pic with tons of hose. You can't see the bigger piece of hard plastic hose right off the big tank, but it is there.
Big tank -> med hard line -> flexible rubber line -> sm hard line -> stick in diff to ****
You must be registered for see images
You can of course use these hoses and tubes in any combination you can connect them together. Just showing what I did.
To refill the diff use the tranny procedure above. Add the friction modifier first if you use it, then add the oil. Stop when it spills out. Wipe up the drips and torque your fill/drain plugs as applicable.
CLUTCH SLAVE BLEEDING OR FLUSH
Initial setup is the same as in the power steering above. I like the smaller bottle to see progress and the fluid in detail.
The one difference is instead of just poking a bare hose into the reservoir that has it's lid removed, you need to connect to the clutch bleeder port. Who designed that thing LOL. It's got a tiny hole in the end.
Do this. Comes with these parts.
You must be registered for see images
You must be registered for see images
Wedge that tapered rubber piece in the end of the bleeder and start the vacuum. Open the bleeder on the clutch slave and the fluid will flow.
***IMPORTANT NOTES***
-> DO NOT let the fluid reservoir on the car run dry. Bleed out some fluid, top off the reservoir. Bleed out some fluid, top off the reser.... You'll get the rhythm down.
-> You may notice air bubbles when bleeding. Even after a while. This is NORMAL. The reason why is that most bleeder screws do not seal well on the threads. You can be pulling air in through the threads, which goes straight into the bleed hose and NOT into the cylinder which has fluid being sucked out of it.
That right there is probably the single most argued point in vacuum bleeding versus pressure bleeding.
Folks, when I connect a negative pressure to a port to remove fluid and there is a slight addition of air due to leakage at that connection, the air is not going to go into the hydraulics system.
I'm sure however that some will come along and explain how it can and does, at which point I'll whoop out my nearly 30 years in chemical and mechanical engineering and spank you.
Back on subject, watch the reservoir level and you'll be fine. I usually just **** through one small bottle of fluid and say she's done.
Put the rubber diaphragm back in the reservoir and tighten the cap. Ensure that the bleeder screw is tight and wipe up any spills.
BRAKE BLEEDING OR FLUSH
The setup is the same as in the clutch slave bleeding with the exception of the end connection.
Use this to connect to the bleeder on the wheel caliper.
You must be registered for see images
The bleeding sequence should be in your factory service manual. Not the owner's manual. You should work your way around the car at the calipers just like it says in the right order.
***FRIENDLY NOTES BASED ON MANY YEARS OF BLEEDING BRAKES THIS WAY***
-> I usually flush through 1 small can of fluid per bleeder. I do use the cheap stuff - Prestone DOT 4 from WalMart - but you'll have to decide what the correct amount is. Anyway, with 2 bleeders per caliper, that's 8 cans of fluid at $2.50 each.
-> I've noticed before on modern ABS vehicles that the bleeding can go very slowly, more noticeable on the rears. I attribute that to length of lines on the car, and maybe the ABS module flow restriction. So, to speed things up, while the bleeder screw is open and the Mityvac is sucking with the reservoir on the car having plenty of fresh fluid, I slowly depress the brake pedal in the car a few times to push the fluid while the sucker ***** it. 10 seconds per foot stroke, watch the reservoir on the car so it always has fluid. You'll get the rhythm down after the first time.
-> The rubber adapter that slips onto the bleeder will leak air. At least I've never been able to keep the air from streaming into the bleed hose. Just like was explained above, not a bit of that air is getting into the hydraulics system. I have removed the bleeder screw and coated the threads with silicone grease, as well as the end of the bleeder itself where the rubber adapter connects. Not worth the effort. I'm done after one can of fluid per bleeder, not when expecting to see no more bubbles.
-> The bleeders on the calipers have a built in rubber dust cap that self tethers itself to the bleeder. Kinda nice the cap won't go rolling away but makes it a PITA to get a wrench on the bleeder screw and turn it quickly one turn. The rubber tether wants to turn with the screw and there ain't room for it to turn so every time you take your wrench off the bleeder springs back. I took the bleeder screws completely out and with an Exacto knife cut the 2 sides apart trimming back so they would look good. Much easier to work on now.
-> I open the bleeder screw one full turn when bleeding.
And that folks is my Mityvac story, and where all the people that say I've been doing it all wrong for the past 44 years can chime in.
