Gretsch
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- #61
Thanks this is very helpful. As far as bleeding, am I correct that I remove the return hose and submerge it in ATF in a bucket while doing the bleeding ? The big question I have is do I have to keep the hose submerged in fluid while bleeding ?
I don't think its critical to have it submerged, but prolly would help in keeping air out of the system. I don't know how easy it would be to see the fluid flow if the hose is submerged, but its prolly not a bad plan to do as you suggest. I did not have it submerged when I did it, just let it fire out into the canister. By doing this this way you could clearly see the old fluid transition to the new fluid. Mine went from burnt brown to red and once I achieved a constant flow of red I hooked up the return hose and stopped filling ATF. Mine also was sort of pink and foamy for a bit as it transitioned the old out. I looked for that clear ruby red of ATF before I stopped. It only took about 10 minutes maybe start to finish.
The fluid can get pretty hot so make sure its in something that won't melt easily. I used an old steel pot my wife had for this. I would suggest you get something pretty good sized as well. I had to do this several times as the pot I had was small. My hose was kind of short and I kept it up high close to the return down spout so I could quickly connect it up once I got the bleeding done. This did not allow for a very big bucket as space there was limited. If I had to do this again I would prolly do what you are suggesting and submerging the hose in a bucket. The key is just to get things to a point where you have a constant flow of ATF through the system while turning the wheel back and forth. If you can achieve that then I would call it good. The pump will tell you a lot just by listening to it. You can hear the change in the noise level as you pour ATF in.
Again though I think you should be able to move the pump with hoses attached. Maybe set it off somewhere on the inside fender well. Would depend on hose length I guess but on mine I would have been able to do what you describe without disconnecting anything I think. If you do end up doing the bleeding it might be a good time to replace those worn hoses. If yours are anything like mine were, it was definitely time to replace them. HTH.