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If it hadn't been for a 1989 Chevy pickup, Phoenix Systems might not be in existence today.
Jon Petty, now the company's technical director, said it all started in 1994. He had always done his own repair work. In fact, he had just put an engine and a standard transmission in his pickup. But he was having trouble with the clutch, so he decided to bleed it.
That's when the nightmare started, and that's when he got the idea for reverse fluid injection.
"I couldn't bleed it, so I thought there was something wrong with the clutch. I had never had any problem bleeding brakes, so I started buying clutch parts for it. I tried all the tricks I knew. I called up one of my friends who is a professional mechanic. I jacked the vehicle up. I struggled with it for six hours trying all the different ways to do it."
With frustration mounting, Petty put on his thinking cap. "Here's the master cylinder up here, and here's the slave system down here. I’m trying to push all the air down this system by pumping the pedal and agitating the fluid to get it all gone."
Because Petty knew that air rises when it's in fluid, he thought, "Let's try it backward."
With that, he made a crude injector by taking a pump, attaching it to the bleed screw, filling the reservoir,and shutting everything down. The result was a perfect pedal.
"First, I figured I must have had it 90% done and I had just finished the last 10%. Because I was so intrigued with what had happened, I filled it up with air again, and two minutes later it was done - a perfect pedal."
With that, Petty started taking notes and later presented them to the patent attorney he had worked with at his other company, which was involved in alternate fuel research. In 1995 a patent was issued. The tools now have five patents and more pending.
For Petty, refining the tool to perform a specific task was the easy part. The hard part was getting it to market. Petty decided to form a new company and called it Phoenix Systems because Petty lived in Phoenix, Arizona at that time.
With the tool designed, Petty began manufacturing it.
Later, Tal Ehlers, who has an extensive background in marketing communications, came on board as marketing director. His “stay-in-front-of-their-face” concept of promoting the project helped the company get the attention of potential customers that included car manufacturers, brake-parts and equipment manufacturers, tool vendors, chains, franchises, and independent shops.
The first unit called the V-10, originally was accepted for its reverse-fluid-injection qualities. "For clutches it was a slam dunk." Petty said. "But it also worked for bleeding brakes - especially ABS units."
However there were stumbling blocks. "We ran into some initial resistance from the ABS industry," Petty said. "The brake industry has been trained for years not to push fluid in a reverse manner. The actual reality of a Phoenix Injector ever causing a problem has never been reported to us."
"We certainly wanted to satisfy the industry regarding the use of the RFI technique on brake systems," Ehlers said. "Testing was conducted by an independent agency to prove the safety of RFI. Now, as a precautionary measure we recommend the technician first vacuum or pressure flush the brake system with the Phoenix Injector, then use RFI as a bleeding technique."
Another obstacle was the first name for the tool. "We found the name 'The RFI (reverse fluid injector) Injector’ to be very limiting," Petty said. "Here we have a sophisticated hand pump that has a vacuum side and a pressure side. All you have to do is attach the vacuum side to the hydraulic side and you've got a vacuum bleeder. And we have a special adapter that goes on the end of the pressure side and you've got a pressure bleeder. So we changed the name to the Phoenix Injector and started promoting all of its bleeding capabilities."
Petty said the time was right for the Phoenix Injector. He noted that the industry and consumers finally started realizing the importance of changing brake fluid.
Petty, Tal Ehlers, and Jim Lewman (who heads technical sales for Phoenix) all made efforts to get leading companies, technical colleges, and technical trainers to try the injector. The results have been very favorable.
More than 80 warehouse distributors carry the injectors and Ehlers continues to find distributors throughout North America. However, Phoenix will sell the product directly to a shop if there are no distributors in the immediate area. Tool vendors Cornwell, Matco, and Snap-On also carry the injectors. Clutch manufacturers that sell Phoenix Injectors include Autospecialty, LuK Automotive, Qualitee International, Perfection Hy-Test, Sachs, and Westling. Carmakers that have approved the tools for use at their dealerships include General Motors, Toyota, Lexus, and Hyundai. Most recently, the product was accepted for use by Raybestos Brakes, Ehlers said.
Ehlers said the tool also has been introduced into several technical-college manuals and that the North American Council of Automotive Teachers has invited Phoenix Systems to conduct seminars at its annual conferences.
The acceptance of the units has been remarkable, Petty said, but some still think of it as a unit that should be used on only the "hard-to-bleed" systems.
"Now they're starting to understand that it's great to use for all types of flushing and bleeding," Lewman said. Petty noted that technicians like the tool because it's so portable. "It's hand operated and not tied to shop air." He added that brake technicians have found that it works well on anti-lock-brake systems, such as the Kelsev-Hayes 4WAL and Delco 6, and to bench bleed modulators.
Petty explains that there is a learning curve, and that's why every injector comes with a 40-minute training video that informs the user of a battery of bleeding techniques. "It shows how to pressure bleed, how to vacuum-bleed, how to bleed four different types of quick take-up master cylinders, how to bench-bleed standard equipment, how to use the pulse generator, how to do our cross-bleeding technique and RFI. One technique creates pulsations in the system to reduce the surface tension of trapped air, similar to knocking or caliper lines to knock bubbles loose."
Petty remembers a shop operator who ordered the tool and had it shipped overnight so he could bleed a troublesome clutch on a Fold Ranger. "If this thing doesn’t work, you’re going to hear about it," he told Petty. The man called back the following day with praise for the tool. "I just did in five minutes what I couldn't do in five hours.”
Parts manufacturers and distributors know that many parts are returned as "defective" when in fact they were installed improperly or, in the case of master cylinders, bench-bled incorrectly. Ehlers noted that one customer, Autospecialty, has experienced a 90% decrease in master-cylinder returns from customers who use Phoenix Injectors.
"If all you were going to do is buy this tool for bench bleeding, it would be worth every penny for it," Petty said. "Then you can start adding up everything else it can do."
"One of the main things we've tried to accomplish as a business is that we want to develop tools that meet a need and solve a problem. And that's what we've done."
The latest product from Phoenix is brake-fluid test strips, but that is another story. The company also has introduced a new master cylinder adapter kit that will fit 90% of current vehicles. Other related tools are expected to be released within the next year.
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