warek

Hi All
We have two 12 year old MTB, one with juicy 3 hydraulic and the other with juicy 3 sl hydraulic brakes. They have had very little use as we found the bikes uncomfortable and handlebars were too low and we did not have a lot of time to ride. The juicy SL has air in system on both brakes and back wheel brake is locked on. The other bike brakes still work, but both bikes have never been bleed in past 12 years and have original pads.
Now we have more time to ride and decided to raise handlebar stems and add new more upright bars. We have had to make up longer front brake hose and fittings. We have also bought a bleed kit from bleedkit.com.
We have left the front wheel in place and pads in the caliper. Problem is that when the bottom syringe is half full of fluid, and top syringe is 1/4 full, instructions say to bleed the hose by gently press bottom syringe to add fluid and it will come out at lever at the top syringe. Nothing happens and after adding considerable force to bottom syringe it does not depress. We have the hose clips open air removed from syringes as per instructions. After 3-4 attempts we got it to work , but there was still air in the system so refilled syringe and started to bleed the hose again. This time bottom syringe would not depress.

We though new hose might have a problem so we removed it and replaced with old hose. Same problem.

We gave up on bike 1 with Juicy SL brakes that had air in system from the start and tried bleeding front brake on the bike that did have working brakes before we started modifications. Exactly the same issue bottoms syringe would not depress, and we also went back to original front brake hose and same problem existed.

We have 1 rear brake that worked before any modifications or attempted bleeding. We tried to bleed lever and it worked perfectly, suggesting our previous bleeding method on front brakes was the correct procedure?

We gave up and are seeking suggestions as to what we should try now?

Thanks for any suggestions and have a good day
Kevin

Cyclist0108

Welcome to Bike Forums.

I have two mountain bikes of the same era. (Trek Fuel Ex 7 and 8). They came with Avid Juicy brakes. I finally tossed them into the trash about 2 years ago and replaced them with (pre-bled, one step ultra-easy install) Shimano XT (SLX would have been just as good) hydraulic brakes. I also replaced the horrible rotors. This was BY FAR the best bang for the buck upgrade I could have made. The brakes perform far better, and they are much more pleasant and easy to maintain and bleed. Shimano uses mineral oil, which is comparatively safe to work with (vs. DOT brake fluid in the Avids, which is corrosive, hygroscopic, and in general a pain to work with.)

I promise you that you will not regret it if you do the same. Make the switch. Dump the bi.. avids.

cpach

The correct service procedure is to throw your Juicys in the trash. Seriously, the probability that the seals are blown in the lever are high. For casual use the cheapest Shimano hydraulic brakes work fine (MT200), MT400 is similar but has 2 finger levers, and Deore brakes are very nice (with pretty diminishing returns thereafter).

frankenmike 

Are you not holding the brake lever down while bleeding?

warek

Thanks for the suggestions, as for the questions are we not holding brake levers in while bleeding, we have tried that many things over 2 hours including holding brake levers in while bleeding that I will have to start and test that again

Thanks for you input

Have a good day Kevin

warek

Tried again held brake lever in while bleeding, cannot depress bottom syringe, let brake lever out same result.

Welcome any other suggestions?

Have a good day
Kevin

Cyclist0108

I don't. I apologize for not having anything to offer, apart from sympathy. @cpach is a professional bike mechanic. I think he is giving you sound advice. I bought the bleed kit for these things, but never actually did a bleed before I cut my losses. As soon as I replaced the Avids, it was like how it feels when you stop smacking yourself in the head with a hammer.

cpach

My advise wasn't meant to be flippant. To make the brakes work, they probably need to have the master cylinder assemblies rebuilt which is a pain in the butt exceeds, for me, the value of the brakes, particularly since the rebuild kit costs ~$25 if you can find it and requires the ownership and really frustrating use of very small internal circlip pliars. Avid recommended this get done semiregularly, which made sense when they were a current and generally pretty good product.

Buy a set of MT200s and enjoy brakes that work as well as the juicys ever did with considerably better reliability.

warek

No problem I appreciate your reply, I took your advice and bought a new cheap set.

Cheers

Kevin