Got back to Kailua after today's ride and went over to the NAPA store to look for oil can with a pump so I could reverse bleed the brakes on the Harley. There were a couple of clerks behind the counter and one of them was an older, slightly crusty guy (older than me if you can imagine) -- He's got two or three people in line getting stuff and he was talking to his customers and giving them advice -- He was real straightforward and didn't mince his words. He told one lady he wasn't going to sell her the six quarts of oil she wanted unless she bought an oil drain box. He had to tell her what it was for. Too many people being irresponsible just draining oil on the ground or in the gutters, that sort of stuff. Turned out that's exactly what she was planning on doing and had no idea what to do with the waste oil until he told her about the kitty litter box. Then there was a guy who wanted a shop manual for a Dodge. Turned out they had been working on some electrical problem when all of a sudden there was a bunch of smoke from the car and then no electrical power at all. The NAPA guy said whoa, stop right there and take it to someone who knows electrics like Wayne's Automotive Electrics. I thought to myself "This is my guy, he sounds like me".
My turn finally came. I told him I wanted the small hand pump oil pump. He knew right away what I wanted. Said he might have one upstairs and would I mind waiting. No problem. He came down and said no luck, that I might try the True Value hardware store or he could order it. I told him no sweat and that I'd go the hardware store to look for one. I mentioned that I needed it for reverse bleeding and that I had this weird ass brake problem. He looks straight at me and says "That's not a weird problem, you're working on a Harley"
How did he know? He said he knew his cars and his bikes and only people working on Harleys come in looking for ways to reverse bleed brakes.
We finally got the brakes to work but it took that bleeder and a bit more work. Turns out that even with all the air out of the system you can't work the lever fast because it will just push the caliper piston out and then pull it right back. We had to help the caliper piston out, hold it and then release the master cylinder real slow to get it to work. PIA.
