Bleeding my bleeding brakes :)
Posted: Sun Aug 22, 04 2:06 pm
Ok chaps, to try and avoid this becoming a long saga...
My '68 Sport Fury has power drums all around. The brakes failed completely after going a little soft. The good folk of this forum suggested my rear master cylinder seal was popped as I had all new wheel cyl seals fitted just prior to picking the car up and no signs of a leak.
Soooooo.... I ordered a seal kit, but this seemed to be taking for ever to come so Mick kindly donated a m/c he had spare off his Dart which was known good, although for manual brakes. Then my seal kit turned up, but turned out to be a complete master cylinder. Not bad for ?28 plus VAT. However, its a thrid party piece and doesn't look stock. The manual Dart m/c looked identical in every way tot he Fury one. So for this reason, plus I wouldn't need to bench bleed it I decided to fit Mick's old master cylinder.
Mick popped round (so there was a responsible adult in the house! LOL) and by the time I'd brewed a cup of tea for the guy he's nipping tight the m/c mount bolts! So we bled it, the rears weren't bad but the front had more air than fluid in it and we couldn't get anywhere near a pedal with a manual bleed.
So I bought m'self one of those vacuum bleeders from Sealey.
So yesterday I bled the brakes with that. With my 3HP compressor running flat out for 40 minutes a corner I thought that must have got the damned air out. Nipped up the nipples and tried. No pedal.
Tried again and it felt a little firmer so I pumped it a couple of times and I had a good pedal. Hooray.
Started car, stuck it in D and it it laboured slightly as the brakes were stuck on, which I thought nothing of as the car has been standing about 2 or 3 months now. Anyway. All seemed well, nice sharp brakes.
BUT....
Went to move it 40 minutes later and the car moved smothley away, no stuck brakes, and then I applied the brake and the pedal went to the floor. Nothing. So I pumped it and the pedal came right back, but the front left brake locked on.
So now I have brakes which pump up a pressure (and hold it) but lock the front left wheel (had the car up on a jack and it does appear only to be the front left). Then looses pedal when left a while.
My thoughts are either:
1) still got air in the system causing a lock somehow
2) Dart manual m/c is not compatible with Fury power system
suggestions gents?
One thing I noticed with the vacuum bleeder was it wasn't pulling a lot of fluid through. We were at it 2 - 2.5 hours and only run 1.5 litres of fluid through.... Not used a vacuum bleeder before so dunno, but I'd have thought it would pull a gallon through in no time.
My '68 Sport Fury has power drums all around. The brakes failed completely after going a little soft. The good folk of this forum suggested my rear master cylinder seal was popped as I had all new wheel cyl seals fitted just prior to picking the car up and no signs of a leak.
Soooooo.... I ordered a seal kit, but this seemed to be taking for ever to come so Mick kindly donated a m/c he had spare off his Dart which was known good, although for manual brakes. Then my seal kit turned up, but turned out to be a complete master cylinder. Not bad for ?28 plus VAT. However, its a thrid party piece and doesn't look stock. The manual Dart m/c looked identical in every way tot he Fury one. So for this reason, plus I wouldn't need to bench bleed it I decided to fit Mick's old master cylinder.
Mick popped round (so there was a responsible adult in the house! LOL) and by the time I'd brewed a cup of tea for the guy he's nipping tight the m/c mount bolts! So we bled it, the rears weren't bad but the front had more air than fluid in it and we couldn't get anywhere near a pedal with a manual bleed.
So I bought m'self one of those vacuum bleeders from Sealey.
So yesterday I bled the brakes with that. With my 3HP compressor running flat out for 40 minutes a corner I thought that must have got the damned air out. Nipped up the nipples and tried. No pedal.
Tried again and it felt a little firmer so I pumped it a couple of times and I had a good pedal. Hooray.Started car, stuck it in D and it it laboured slightly as the brakes were stuck on, which I thought nothing of as the car has been standing about 2 or 3 months now. Anyway. All seemed well, nice sharp brakes.
BUT....
Went to move it 40 minutes later and the car moved smothley away, no stuck brakes, and then I applied the brake and the pedal went to the floor. Nothing. So I pumped it and the pedal came right back, but the front left brake locked on.
So now I have brakes which pump up a pressure (and hold it) but lock the front left wheel (had the car up on a jack and it does appear only to be the front left). Then looses pedal when left a while.
My thoughts are either:
1) still got air in the system causing a lock somehow
2) Dart manual m/c is not compatible with Fury power system
suggestions gents?
One thing I noticed with the vacuum bleeder was it wasn't pulling a lot of fluid through. We were at it 2 - 2.5 hours and only run 1.5 litres of fluid through.... Not used a vacuum bleeder before so dunno, but I'd have thought it would pull a gallon through in no time.