I want to bleed my brakes and replace the brake fluid soon. What's the best (and easiest) way to go about doing this? I have a Mity-Vac pump, would that help at all? Also, how do you bleed the master cylinder?

Need to Bleed - and a Ramble

Don't laugh, ( or maybe do laugh) but I have had excellent luck with zip tying a bicycle tube onto the master cyclinder and pumping it up a little to pressurize the system. Once it is pressurized you can start at the rear and let the old fluid out the bleeder vavles. You want to make sure that you don't lower the level of the fluid too much in the master and start pumping air down the lines. it is best with two people so one can watch the fluid level, but you can do it by yourself.
A presta valve mountain bike tube works well, cut it open to go over the master cylinder fill hole and put a knot on the other end to close it off. All you have to do is put a little pressure in the brake system so that when you open the bleeder at the wheel the old fluid will be foreced out. It does the same thing as a bleed kit, but for free if you get a punctured tube from a bike shop. I like free. -Andy

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andy t
'78 300d
'95 volvo 850, wagon
'86 300sdl - engine out, maybe I'll have it rolling by June

whole bunch o' bicycles

There is a pressurized bleed system called EZ Bleed that I have used for several years now and find is far better than the vacuum and two man procedures. I never had much luck with my MityVac and my wife was not good at working the brake pedal. EZ Bleed works much like wheelguru's bicycle tire. It has several diffrent sized brake resevoir caps, one of which will fit your car. A hose attaches to the top of the cap, routes through a catch bottle, and another air line runs from the bottle and attaches to your tire. This pressurizes your resevoir and the bottle in between makes sure no debris or liquid finds it's way into your brake system. Once pressurized, you just open up the bleed nipples and let the fluid flow out until it's clear. Just be sure you don't let your resevoir run dry or you'll have to start all over. It really works great and the amount of pressure drop in the tire is only a pound or two and if that bothers you you can use the spare. Don't try to use a high pressure tank or compressor because the system is not designed to take more than typical tire pressure. I don't remember where I bought this but it wouldn't be very hard to make one if you can't find it. This system also works great on clutch hydraulics too.

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LRG
1987 300D Turbo 175K
2006 Toyota Prius, efficent but no soul
1985 300 TDT(130K miles of trouble free motoring)now sold