blandis

Did a search and have a few questions. Think I have my problem narrowed down, just want to make sure I am not missing something.

Keep in mind, car has not been driven much over the last several months as I have been working on it. Car is an 88 auto.

Brake issue started when my son said pedal went to floor one night when he was driving. I went out and front passanger wheel was very hot compared to drivers side. Assumed the caliper was sticking. Pulled the caliper and pads,cleaned with brake cleaner and reassembled. Drove fine for a few days and even drove it up to DFW GTG on Saturday. No noticable issues at all.

Notice the brake fluid was the color of Jack Daniels.... on Sunday flushed the brakes. Had and issue (I posted it) with front drivers side bleed screw breaking off. Was plugged with rust and grit. Took caliper off the car, and ran it up to the welder who got the bleed screw out. Replaced bleeder screw with one from Roger out of a speed bleed kit he had laying around.

Did all 4 corners last night with ATE blue. Started with RR, LR, RF and LF. Realize now that is backwards. I did not bleed the master cyl. Fired it up and brakes are very mushy. So grabbed clear dot 4 and did them again in the same order. RR, LR, RF, LF... did not do master cyl. (again did not realize this till my search this morning). Both times with a motive power bleeder.

We did use the old 2 man method on the rears the first time around. My son did push the pedal to the floor and hold it while I worked the bleed screws. From what I understand could have damaged MC/Booster?

After the final bleed last night, started car and drove it around the block. Pedal goes to the floor every stop and the result is light brakeing. If you pump them they work fine. With motor not running pedal firms up solid with few pumps and does not seem to bleed down.

I did look to see if there was fluid on the floor and dont see that anything is leaking, will check again tonight. Any special tests I should do to make sure I dont have a leak to help narrow my problem?

I did only bleed the outside bleed screw on each of the calipers. Should both be done? Could that be an issue?

Thanks in advance for your help!

RKD in OKC

Got to do all of them bleeders and Master, AND ABS if you have it.

mark kibort

use the 2 man method. push down, maybe almost to the floor and close bleeder. do it slowly. (maybe 2 seconds per press). on last cycle, close the bleader after 1 second, if it takes 2 to push the brake pedal down. you had the right order. furthest to closest caliper.

928porschepatrick

yepp all of them , with the 2 man method push the pedal half way otherwise you could damage booster

my advice is use a power bleeder build up pressure and bleed and if fluid level go's low fill up

advice from dutch boy, regards

SeanR

I use the single man method, motive bleeder doing it like you did, RR on up. Both bleed screws need to be done, so get it up in the air with the wheels off.

blandis

Does master and ABS have to be done?

Do master first, before the brakes?

Leon Speed

Master, LF, RF, LR, RR. Inside nipple first, then outside on each caliper. Tap lightly with a rubber mallet just in case. Make sure the flexible brake lines don't balloon btw.

Not sure if ABS can be done or how. I didn't, save for bleeding then going for a drive, stand on the pedal to engage ABS a few times, bleed again.

mark kibort

no master doesnt need to be done, nor does the ABS. it all flushes through that system anyway.
the power bleeder doesnt really work anywhere near as well as the two man . Ive used it at the track, and ended up with dangerously spongy brakes, only to be quickly fixed by the outer bleeders and 2 man method. pressure bleeder is good for flushing out all the fluid though, or using it during 2 man method as well.

blandis

Perfect. Will run them all again tonight and report back.

Weird that these are done in reverse order with the closest caliper first... not the first time I have said that about these cars!

mark kibort

I dont know who said this, but as far as I know, its furthest first all the way to the closest. If that is not true and there is a reason why that is not true, I sure would like to hear about it!!

GlenL

Sounds to me like a stuck caliper boiled the brake fluid. There's a possibility that the cups in the master wore while bleeding it. It's true that you can damage them while bleeding by running the cups over corrosion at the back of the master.

I'd keep at the bleeding before throwing parts at it. Think about your bleeding procedure. Make sure the bleeder is closed before the pedal lifts up. And make sure to not run the reservoir dry.

I always thought you started with the rear calipers first. On each caliper the outside pistons before the insides.

123quattro

You want to go furthest caliper to nearest. You do NOT need to bleed the ABS unit. You need special tools/software to do that anyway and I'm sure no one on this board has access to them.

Mrmerlin

after a few bleeds i would say that you need a new master cylinder ,
pushing the seals to full travel on a old system usually puts the seals into the unused portion of the MC bore this will swiftly cut the seals as the bore has corrosion on it, given the JD color of the fluid.
When you fit the new MC bleed it first then work from the furthest wheel to the closest

jeff spahn

I bet there is someone who does

riviera455

some cars are difficult to bleed, especialy the rear lines, air wont go down , jack up the rear , and air travels upwarts more easy to the bleeder.

how did your welder gets that bleederscrew out?