Brake levers are very hard to pull  By  scootcouper (Read 852 times)

Thanks chewbaca -- there are two levers and three brake calipers, one lever actuates two at a time and the other lever actuates three at a time. If I understand what you're recommending, hook up a bleeder hose and a jar to one of the bleeder valves, open the bleeder valve and squeeze the lever, see if there is resistance. If not, close that bleeder valve and move on to the next one -- correct?

When testing the front brake lever should I have both bleeder valves open at the same time for both front brakes?

I assume I should keep the reservoir covers on during the test?

Thank you!

This seems to have been caused by gunked up brake caliper pistons. I took the calipers off, sprayed them with brake cleaner and re-lubricated the slide pins and the brakes are now much easier to pull. They are dual piston calipers and when I was pushing one piston down to push the other one up, it almost popped completely out and some brake fluid leaked, so think I have some air in the system now. I'll bleed it and hopefully will be in good shape.

That nasty color is from moisture contamination. I think most motorcycle mfg's recommend a brake fluid flush every two years.
Also the OE break lines are really bad and will deteriorate and goop and get air in the system.
Mine had four seasons on her when the front brake got real spongy, I pret much knew what it was, the break hose had deteriorated to a soft goo and so much air in the system my level went to the bar.
At the moment Im converting to rear disc brake and a brand new Caliper I Didn't get from Parts for Scooters had the Bleeder hole plugged with a piece of black goo. still had a issue, Popped both pistons out of the caliper and both pistons had corrosion around so I had to spiff those up and the rest of the caliper had some black debris in it.
Heres is the pic of my OE rubber front line, The Scooter has never seen a wet road and look how nasty the whole thing was coming apart.
I had a Stainless braided line made while I waited locally for under $20.

Thanks guys, my question is really about how to get bleeding going once the system has been run more or less empty. Here's an image of the brake system -- as you can see, the two levers go to a "proportion valve" that then distributes the fluid to the three brakes. So the left lever actuates all three calipers and the right lever actuates only the front two calipers. With a setup like that, how am I supposed to bleed it? Do I need to bleed from the proportion valve down, and then up to the reservoirs somehow? Totally stumped on this one.