Well I prefer to bleed it in the truck with the little clips and hoses, and a friend to do the pedal thing. I always end up getting fluid everywhere when I bleed them on the bench, but when it's in the truck and stationary it just seems to be much easier to work with when it's all bolted up.
I always pull the fittings off the old cylinder, cap them with the little rubber or plastic vacuum hose caps to keep fluid from leaking out, then reinstall the new cylinder, get the linkage squared up, then bleed it. Once the bubbles are gone, uncap the lines and install in the new cylinder. You'll get a very small amount of air right at the fittings, but the way I cure that is stuff a rag under there, and crack the fittings just a hair, abnd because the system is full of fluid on both sides of the fittings the air has to come out, and you'll hear it. Just like bleeding injectors. Pump a little fluid out, and tighten the fittings, game, set, match. Spray off the fittings and any fluid splatter with some brake cleaner and wipe off, and yer done.
There are little generic bleeder kits at the parts stores that have two hoses and an assortment of plastic bleeder fittings and clips to hold the hoses in the reservoir that work great. About the only thing bad with bleeding the cylinder in the truck is dripping fluid on the paint, but careful slow work pretty much makes drips moot.
- M2