Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2001 16:45:35 -0500
Reply-To: Gary Stearns <gstearns@OPTONLINE.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Gary Stearns <gstearns@OPTONLINE.NET>
Subject: Re: Frustration in Brake Land
Content-type: multipart/alternative;
Not sure if this applies but here goes. Last summer I replaced the master
cylinder in our '88. Same thing that you found, no amount of bleeding or
fiddling would get the pedal firm. I discovered that the master cylinder
for some reason was holding an air bubble, it wasn't filling from the
reservoir as I would expect. I took the reservoir off (again) and "primed"
every opening on the m/c that I could find. That was it. Stuck air bubble
came out, brakes finally felt good.
Gary
-------Original Message-------
From: KENWILFY@AOL.COM
Date: Friday, November 02, 2001 03:26:21 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Frustration in Brake Land
I have a '80 Vanagon Westie here that is trying to drive me insane. The guy
brought it in to have some brake work done. He could see that one of his
calipers was leaking and draging and the pedal was feeling soft.
He told me to replace the brake booster, the master cylinder, and the front
calipers and whatever the brake system needed.
I had a set of known good, used calipers that we decided to use for the
front and I set my helper on this project because I was busy with two other
vans.
My helper replaced the booster, the master cylinder, and the two front
calipers. We then bled the system. Pedal was still low and it seemed that
you could pump it up, then let off of it, and after a few seconds it was low
again. I then inspected the rear brakes. One wheel cylinder was bad, I
replaced that and I also had a thin drum on one side. I put a new drum on
and also a new set of shoes. We bled it three more times. Still low pedal,
kinda smooshie. I went out and bought a power bleeder (Mity Vac). I had
wanted one of these for a while any way. Bled it again, still the same. I
inspected the metal lines and the rubber lines and found that all of the
rubber lines had bulges in them. I thought I had finally found the problem.
I replaced all of the lines with new ones. Bled the system again. Still
the same!!
Any suggestions? I am starting to suspect that my helper did something
wrong when he installed the brake booster, however I can't figure out how
the brake booster could cause a low, smooshie pedal. The only other thing I
can think of is that the one of the parts we put on is defective. Any help
would be appreciated. Usually brake jobs are so simple, this one is
starting to get to me.
Thanks,
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com
Phone: (856)-765-1583
Fax: (856)-327-2242
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