[Luke3759]

Just upgraded to braided steel lines on my 2016 yamaha r3 and so emptied out all the brake fluid and when topping up after reassembling everything the fluid just stays in the reservoir and won't go into the rest of the system. At best can only get one drop to come out into the top banjo after lots of pumping.

Update: managed to get brake fluid pumping through brake line and out through bleeder. Not getting any more air bubbles out of the fluid but still zero brake pressure.

 

[cornerslider]

You didn't mention if your bike was equipped with ABS brakes? I have ZERO experience with bleeding ABS, but I have bled the brakes on non-ABS R3's many times. Done properly, you shouldn't have to loosen the "banjo bolt". It just takes time, and lots of pumping. I pump 4-5 times, hold the lever in, and crack the bleeder, and then retighten it before letting go of the lever. You will have to do this many times. Keep an eye on the reservoir, and never let it run out of fluid- that with only add more time to the job. Good luck, and let us know if you get this sorted out-

 

[clawhamm3r]

It's the same process on ABS, just takes even longer due to the extra route to the pump.

One thing I noticed: afterwards I had less lever feel than before installing braided lines and bleeding, and thought I was going to have to bleed again, but after triggering ABS a couple of times things got way better. With cars and stuff there's a procedure to cycle the ABS pump when bleeding to do it the "right way," I imagine it's similar with bikes even though everyone says it's not necessary.

 

[Luke3759]

Bike is an abs model but has had the abs disabled. The abs pump has not been removed but the brake line does go straight from the reservoir to the caliper.
Have gone through almost an entire bottle of brake fluid and still have no feel in the lever and brakes still don't work.

My only thought would be there's a massive air bubble somewhere in the line or something that I can't get rid of despite all efforts. Would some sort of vacuum bleeder possibly be necessary for this?

 

[cornerslider]

Bike is an abs model but has had the abs disabled. The abs pump has not been removed but the brake line does go straight from the reservoir to the caliper.
Have gone through almost an entire bottle of brake fluid and still have no feel in the lever and brakes still don't work.

My only thought would be there's a massive air bubble somewhere in the line or something that I can't get rid of despite all efforts. Would some sort of vacuum bleeder possibly be necessary for this?

My experience with vacuum bleeders was negative .... I spent a fair amount of money, on what appeared to be a quality product. After it "failed" on the first use, I ended up going back to manually bleeding the brakes as per the OEM service manual. Maybe the ABS needs to be "enabled" again to bleed air??? That being said, I have ZERO experience on an R3 with ABS. As much as I hate to admit it- I was "saved" by my ABS in 2016- on a KTM RC390. I ran out of tire/talent on a the first session of a cold/late season track day (in wet/damp grass). As much as I was humbled by that experience, I managed to keep it rubber-side down during that "event". ABS is a great thing, yet it makes things challenging for everyday "Joe public" to do work on his/her bike... Please let us know how this ABS situation ends for you-

 

[NinjaBraap]

Just upgraded to braided steel lines on my 2016 yamaha r3 and so emptied out all the brake fluid and when topping up after reassembling everything the fluid just stays in the reservoir and won't go into the rest of the system. At best can only get one drop to come out into the top banjo after lots of pumping.

Update: managed to get brake fluid pumping through brake line and out through bleeder. Not getting any more air bubbles out of the fluid but still zero brake pressure.

More info would be best. One, have you ever done this before? Two, what method and tools are you using? Three, did you bench bleed / prime first?

 

[Luke3759]

Seemed to have managed to solve this issue. It would seems as if there was a massive air pocket at the top of the brake line which I've seem to have been able to solve by compressing the pistons to push the fluid back up and countlessly bleeding the top banjo.

 

[NinjaBraap]

Seemed to have managed to solve this issue. It would seems as if there was a massive air pocket at the top of the brake line which I've seem to have been able to solve by compressing the pistons to push the fluid back up and countlessly bleeding the top banjo.

When re-powering brakes after draining all the fluid, if you don't have a high pressure vacuum bleeder (pneumatic bleeder and high capacity/high rate compressor), it will take a long time of just repeatedly pressing the brake lever usually to re-power with no additional tools other than a hose to drain fluid from the low point.

There are a number of way to get around this, but by the cheapest and easiest is to use a syringe and push fluid into the system from the low point. You can also use a syringe once re-powered to back bleed your brake system and really ensure that there's no air in the system.

I would also highly recommend getting the Motion Pro one way check valve brake bleeder tool. I use that on basically every brake bleed/flush/re-power, does the best job of helping to get solid pressure every time.

 

[clawhamm3r]

Seemed to have managed to solve this issue. It would seems as if there was a massive air pocket at the top of the brake line which I've seem to have been able to solve by compressing the pistons to push the fluid back up and countlessly bleeding the top banjo.

Great. I was going to suggest loosing the M/C clamp and rotating it to see if you could get the M/C to bleed correctly.

 

[craigfer63]

When you have opened your brake system and you are trying to bleed system back up to pressure, and you have air in your brake system, but where ?
The air pocket is between the two cups on the Master Cylinder Piston, here.

To get this pumping you need to fill this void between these two cups.
The easiest way is to take the Master Cylinder off the handle bars.
Now with Master Cylinder full and cap on, roll the Master Cylinder over so the brake line banjo is up.
Now with plenty of rags, to catch spills, take the brake line off the master cylinder, plug or hold up the brake line (third hand needed here).
Now look into the Master Cylinder brake line hole, you will see the piston and the lack of brake fluid between these two cups.( As above)
If you move the lever, no fluid comes out. Here is your problem.
Pour some brake fluid into this hole, now when you move the lever, fluid comes out.
Reassemble brake line, trying to loose as little Fluid.as possible.
Took me a long time to figure this out. (Years)