Do you need a scan tool to bleed the ABS brakes on a J30?

[Victor]

I have been reading just about every article I could find on brakes while researching a brake lockup problem on my Ford Explorer, that seems to be a common problem on many vehicles, not just the Explorer.
But anyway, I read that on some ABS equipped cars you have to hook a computer up to the car to cycle the valves in the ABS control unit to get any trapped air out. Is the J30 one of these cars. One article I read said disconnect the battery to disable the ABS unit if you don't have the computer, but I don't know if the guy knew what he was talking about.
BTW, I got a few hints for bleeding brakes as I have been doing three vehicles.
1. The cheap so called one man bleeders don't work, at least the one I bought from Napa. The one way valve doesn't close completely and some of the dirty fluid and air go back into the cylinder when you release the brake pedal. And the damm thing got clogged up and fell apart, spraying brake fluid all over the place.
2. I made my own vacuum bleeder out of a syringe and it was working pretty good until the brake fluid ruined the seals. But vacuum bleeders don't work that well either because air leaks in around the bleeder screw threads when you loosen it.
3. I found a way to minimize the leakage. It takes some extra time and you will lose some brake fluid. But anyway, completely remove the bleeder screw, clean it, and then coat the treads with anti-seize and reinstall them. The anti-seize will minimize the amount of air the leaks back in around the treads when using a vacuum. You have to work fast as brake fluid will be slowly leaking out while the bleeder screw is out. When using the old fashioned two man brake bleeding method air leakage is less of a problem because you have a positive pressure keeping most of the air out.
4. BTW, if you want to bleed your brakes until you get clear brake fluid coming out it takes a lot of brake fluid. I went through a whole 32 ounce can plus part of another doing my GMC van. Also, on some vehicles like my GMC van they have two brake fluid reservoirs, one for the front brakes and one for the rear, be sure to keep them both full or you may end up sucking air in if one goes empty and have to do the whole thing over again. Also put the rubber bellows back on the keep brake fluid from spraying all over the place while pumping the brakes, and pump slowly.

[AZhitman]

To answer your question, no.

If you have air that deep in the system, something really wrong has happened. Follow the FSM guide for bleeding the brakes, it's no different from any other (older) car.

I have used the 2-man system with a length of clear hose, a 10mm wrench and an old Gatorade bottle for several years, and countless cars, including very modern (2009) cars.

[J30tChumpCar]

I two man bleed our racing J30 4-6 times a year, no tricks, you will need a quart of fluid.

[Victor]

I ended up doing a two man bleed, the cheap check valve type didn't work, and my homemade vacuum bleeder stopped working after the brake fluid destroyed the rubber seals on the medical syringe I was using.

BTW, the cheapest place I found to buy brake fluid is Walmart, $4.77 for a 32 ounce can of Prestone Dot3, which is about $2 a quart cheaper than the sale price at Autozone, O'Reilly, or Napa.

I really like the pedal feel of my GMC van after a complete brake fluid exchange.

I am going to redo my J30T now that I am getting good at brake bleeding.

[J30tChumpCar]

Its not easy but if you can suck the fluid out of the master and refill before starting the bleed job on the J it will save some fluid, if not you will need a little more then a quart.