Best approach to bleeding brakes - Part 2

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by joyridin'

That was before I bought the Speed Bleeders...but it still didn't take me 5 hours.

Hell, I've been building this thing for 3-1/2 years. What would make you think it would take me any less time?

[patrickt]

Man, I'm going to be really surprised if it's sucking that much air past the threads on the bleeder screw on a freshly rebuilt caliper, but what-the-hay.... If Teflon tape doesn't fix it, then I say the caliper had a POS-rebuild job done on it, or maybe you're pulling air in the master cylinder because you're pumping too hard, with too long a stroke, and pumping too quickly.

[kevins2]

Originally Posted by DanEC

Kevin - any idea as too how high? I had the nose elevated probably about 7 to 8 inches in order to pull the front tires. No need to remove the rear due to the inboard calipers.

Hi Dan,

I did the same thing in my first attempt but subsequently spoke with Doug. He indicated you need to raise it as high as possible and, as I said in a previous post, he actually uses a section of 4x4 on his jack to raise it higher than the jack would alone. His point is that air can remain trapped in the master cylinders if you're gravity bleeding or even using the pedal pump method. This is my first time through this so I'm just passing along the information I received (and obviously has worked for Doug many, many times). There're a lot of good suggestions in this thread and, since I'm not happy with my pedal pressure, I'll be addressing this again myself.

Regards,

Kevin

[joyridin']

Originally Posted by DanEC

Hell, I've been building this thing for 3-1/2 years. What would make you think it would take me any less time?

That is pretty good. My car has been on jack stands for over 3 years just to rebuild the Jag rear and upgrade the brake system.

Took me about an hour to bleed the system by myself.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by joyridin'

That is pretty good. My car has been on jack stands for over 3 years just to rebuild the Jag rear...

Uhhh, you know you could just ship that bad boy off to Michigan Driveline and have it back in about a week, good as new....

[joyridin']

Originally Posted by patrickt

Uhhh, you know you could just ship that bad boy off to Michigan Driveline and have it back in about a week, good as new....

I had the rear rebuilt last year. That wasn't too bad. It was upgrading the brakes that took so long. Seems like every little thing that would take 2 hours took 2 months. Still waiting on the caliper mounting brackets to be welded and drilled. They were supposed to be done a month ago. Everything else is finally ready to go.

Oh well...at least it will all be right.

[DanEC]

Well, I found speed bleeders at the local PepBoys so I picked some up and installed them today. Of course that didn't go uneventfuly as I had 3 calipers with 3/8 in bleeders and 1 - 5/16 bleeder requiring that I by 3 packs of 2 each. I didn't loose much fluid switching out the front ones but on the rear Girlings it made a pretty good mess. I also jacked the front of the car up pretty high and tapped on the master cylinders with a wooden handle to move any air out of them. I have a pedal now, although as Kevin2 experienced, it seems a little soft still. It may just take some time to get used to it.

Thanks for the help.

Dan

[cscobra]

Mine felt soft at this stage, too, Dan--pedal firms up nicely as you drive and as the pads seat themselves.

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by cscobra

Mine felt soft at this stage, too, Dan--pedal firms up nicely as you drive and as the pads seat themselves.

I think part of it is the amount of pedal travel before the brake pedal gets firm - it's somewhere around 2 to 2-1/2 inches on mine just from laying a tape measure down there and pushing on the pedal. Seeing how immediately the Tilton master engages the clutch slave cylinder - I would have thought the brakes would have a little higher pedal (?).

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by DanEC

I think part of it is the amount of pedal travel before the brake pedal gets firm - it's somewhere around 2 to 2-1/2 inches on mine just from laying a tape measure down there and pushing on the pedal.

That didn't seem right, so I walked out and took a quick measurement. Holding the tape measure and pushing the pedal with my hand, I measure mine at 1 and 3/4 inches. And it's pretty firm, whether you're pushing with your hand or your foot.

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by patrickt

That didn't seem right, so I walked out and took a quick measurement. Holding the tape measure and pushing the pedal with my hand, I measure mine at 1 and 3/4 inches. And it's pretty firm, whether you're pushing with your hand or your foot.

It may be closer to 2 inches that 2-1/2. I was pushing with my foot and trying to hold a tape measure and reading it down there was difficult. And cscobra brings up a good point that after the surface is scuffed off the pads and the pistons are in their normal position that free play should further decrease.

Thanks

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by DanEC

It may be closer to 2 inches that 2-1/2. I was pushing with my foot and trying to hold a tape measure and reading it down there was difficult. And cscobra brings up a good point that after the surface is scuffed off the pads and the pistons are in their normal position that free play should further decrease.

Thanks

Yeah, I wouldn't dwell on a lot of this stuff until you've put 500 "soft" miles on the car. And I think that's important, that the first 500 miles be relatively gentle so everything has a chance to mate, or break off, gently.

[cscobra]

Patrickt's right about that.

In addition to following that suggestion, I did oil & filter changes at 200 and 500 miles; I plan another at 1000. I checked every nut and bolt on the car at those times, too, and rechecked 4-wheel alignment at 500 miles (all was well) before setting the ride height correctly (the springs should have settled enough by then!).

So far, so good!