Bleeding the brakes on a 65/66 Mustang can prove to be a very annoying task. It is typically done in one of a few ways by the the average hobbyist, none of which go anything close to as well as said hobbyist hopes. Either using a partner to press the pedal down while you are operating the bleeder valve, or, if it's just you, using one of the many hand-powered vacuum pumps which don't work very well at all, or, even better, open the bleeder valve, jamb the brake pedal down with a telescoping hood prop, go back under the car, close the bleeder valve, go pull the hood prop out, open the valve, etc.... and then you run into the problem of aerated brake fluid, that one annoying air bubble that just won't go away, all sorts of little issues that make for a very unpleasant afternoon.
I became very frustrated with all of the above methods, having to threaten one of my children with all sorts of sanctions if they didn't help me, and trying new devices that I was assured would make my life easier, and never did. So, I gave it a little thought and this is what I came up with. I figured that it would work pretty well, but, I was actually amazed by just how well this thing actually did work. I screw this thing onto the master cylinder, which is full of fluid, attach a piece of vinyl tubing to the bleeder valve on the wheel cylinder, open the bleeder valve, open the valve on my contraption, and in an instant I have good clean brake fluid coming out of the bleeder valve. I was amazed at how easy this made a chore that had been extremely annoying in the past. Here is how I made it.
I took an old master cylinder cap, drilled a hole in it, cut that same hole in the M/C cap gasket and installed a quick release fitting for an air hose. I then put a pressure regulator for a paint gun on a short run of air hose with the other quick release fitting. I used those particular parts because I had all of that junk sitting around, but, one could go to a paint supply house, a hardware store, or a home improvement store, and get a lever type valve. What you see in the picture is all that there is. An old master cylinder cap, way less than 10 dollars worth of fittings, a washer on each side of the master cylinder gasket, some gasket sealer on the outside of the master cylinder cap, a screw in the vent hole of the cap, and a valve.
This is a very easy assembly to make, using parts that are both readily available and very cheap. All that is required is an air compressor, and the smallest cheapest air compressor in the galaxy would work just fine. Don't crack the valve open all the way on the first usage. Take it easy until you see how quickly the fluid is coming out of the bleeder valve with the compressor that you have. Just screw the cap part onto your master cylinder, attach a normal air hose to that, attach the rest of this thing to other end of the air hose, so that you have the valve with you at the wheel, attach your air supply hose to the other end of your new bleeder thingy, and have at it.
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