Hope brakes bleeding tips and tricks

Mucking around with the bleed process the other night and stumbled onto something, there's a step during a SRAM bleed where you pull the lever to the bar and hold it there while creating a vacuum at the calliper to draw the air bubbles out. Turns out that this also works with Hopes.
 
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cokeonspecialtwodollars said:
Mucking around with the bleed process the other night and stumbled onto something, there's a step during a SRAM bleed where you pull the lever to the bar and hold it there while creating a vacuum at the calliper to draw the air bubbles out. Turns out that this also works with Hopes.
Click to expand...
I found if trying a vacuum technique it's also important to not wind the bleed nipple out too far, otherwise air leaks from around the threads. Wonder if some plumbers tape would help?
 
I have had to replace the hose on my rear e4 last night and learnt a few lessons trying to get fluid back in.
  1. It matters how you angle the bike when bleeding. When bleeding the rear, I thought it'll be better if i orient the bike such that the lever is below the caliper so the air can travel up to the caliper. But all this ended up doing was trapping the air in the system. I couldn't get any out. I then orient it the normal way, so the lever is a bit higher, then all is working.
  2. Push some oil into the caliper first to flood the hose to make life easier.
  3. Make sure you get rid of the air trapped behind the pistons. I removed loads behind the pistons.
  4. If you are careful, use the brake pads as your bleed block. As the bleeding video suggested, just keep the pads in, but remove the rotor and be very careful to not spill any oil on them. The way the port is oriented should minimise this happening if you are careful.
  5. If the connector of the bleed kit's hose is worn, it may pop out when you open and close the bleed port, and shoot oil all over the place.
  6. Before putting the diaphragm in, make sure you move the pistons all the way back. Otherwise, you will end up with too much oil in the system and your pistons won't retract enough to give enough space between your pad and your rotor. If you push one piston in and the another one push itself out, you have too much oil in the system. The only way to fix this is by removing the diaphragm and spill some oil out.
Took me 4 hours to get my rear working and bleed the front. And now i have a new problem where the pads go too far in and continuously rub on the rotor - caliper is dead centre. I also found a nasty surprise when I opened the reservoir up last night to find the diaphragm has expanded. No clue why.

I have had these brakes for years now. Given how easy I managed to bleed shimanos and how cheap to maintain them, I am beyond fed up with hope. If it wasn't for the modulation, I would have moved them on by now.

Oh to make things worse, since they released tech 4, it is harder now to buy parts for tech 3 from local suppliers. Bike chain used to sell those diaphragms, not anymore. Maybe it is time I walk into a bike shop and ask if anyone has old tech 3 parts lying around they want to move on and hoard them.
 
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