RayW:

I have one of those hand operated vacumn pumps (The good brass one, not the cheap plastic one.) which I bought for bleeding brakes, and have never been able to do a good job with it.

The way I bleed brakes now is with a soda bottle and a length of hose.

Put some brake fluid in the bottle, dunk the hose so it stays immersed under the fluid. Run the other end of the hose to the bleed nipple (Different diameter hose for different bleed nipples.), and crack the bleed seat just enough to allow the fluid to bleed out under pressure. Get in the car and push the brake pedal down slowly to the floor and let it come up by itself. Do this until the resistance feels a little greater (It will still go to the floor because the valve is open.) Get back under the car and seat the bleed valve tight, and do the same to all the other lines, remembering to fill the brake reservoir as you bleed fluid out.

The hose being immersed in brake fluid will not be able to allow air back in when the pedal moves back up and air in the line will be expelled out or float back through the lines to the reservoir.

One car I did this with had the safety valve that blocks off the two diagonal brakes from losing fluid if one of them leaks. I had to find the instructions to reset that, and they were to merely slam on the brake pedal very hard while staitonary, and it reset.

Have no experience with ABS and can not give any comments on how to bleed them.

Bountyhunter