Can I Swap My Hs33 Lever

[rab shropshire]

hi is it possible to change my complete lever body without a rebleed

[Mat Smith!!]

Yeah but your brake will feel shit afterwards, just re bleed it after.

[Ben John-Hynes]

It IS possible, but like Mat said, it'll feel shit after even if you get a tiny bit of water in there. Bleeding them really isn't hard, usually takes a few minutes.

[psycholist]

Provided you completely fill the lever with whatever fluid you want to use and are very careful in reassembling the brake (Make sure you don't shake the brake line so it remains filled and that the brake line displaces fluid as you push it into the fitting at the lever it is possible), but probably quicker and definitely more reliable to just assemble and rebleed.

To further increase the chance of it working pull the brake before changing the lever and stick a match behind one of the brake pads. This stops one of the pistons fully retracting holding more fluid in the brake line. Then submerge the brake line in a pool of fluid in the fitting in the brake lever and take the match stick out so any air bubble in the brake line will get pushed out by the fluid released by the slave piston returning to its stop. Once the air bubble has been removed push the brake line the full way into the fitting and tighten.

A similar technique is used on disk brakes to shorten the hoses/change lever, but they have no return spring in the slave pistons, so they don't need to be held out of position.