[V8] brake bleeding

[James]

Seamus - I can only speak to my experience here, but it may be of some
help...

On my V8q - I had all of the calipers off for a long time (they were total
junk) - it was on jack stands for a few months.  This was with the master
cyl off as well, so the lines had pretty much drained as much as they could
be, etc.  i.e. LOTS of air in the system.

When I got brand new everything (literally: calipers, pads, rotors (+UFOs),
master cyl, bomb, hydraulic pump, new hydraulic lines, new custom brake
lines, etc.) I bled the system "the old fashioned way", with the wife
hitting the brakes, and me going around the car loosening and tightening the
bleeders yelling "Pump em!  Hold em!", etc. etc. etc. until nice new fluid
flowed from all points without air bubbles.

Although not the most elegant way, the brakes were ROCK SOLID when I was
done.  The light was still on though, and would flicker occasionally...
Turned out to be the PRESSURE SWITCH on the booster was bad.  Found it by
disconnection of each input to the light (hydraulic reservoir, brake
reservoir, etc.) until I disconnected the pressure switch - and the light
went off...  Replaced it, and haven't had a problem since.  Brakes are still
solid, and no light.

--james

On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 6:43 PM, Seamus O'Carey
<cheshirecatsbox at gmail.com>wrote:

> I'm still at a loss on this bleeding thing. I've read the brake section of
> the manual about 5 times, but since I still seem to be doing something
> wrong, I must have missed something.
>
> What is the proper method of bleeding the brakes? Do I have to do something
> with the ABS system or should I be able to just pull the air through with a
> vacuum bleeder at the calipers? Car running or not?
>
> If you want more info, here's the background story:
> I got the car with brake problems and even though I drove it home (~90
> miles), the brakes have always been squishy and the light has always been
> on.
>
> The previous owner replaced the bomb, but it didn't help. I replaced the
> servo (as well as the rear calipers and all 4 pads and rotors) and then
> bled
> the calipers, but the pedal was still a bit soft and the light was still
> on.
> Also at this point the right front brake started dragging.
>
> So I replaced the master cylinder the other day, which resulted in NO
> brakes
> at all. I did forget to bench bleed the master cylinder however, so I
> connected a pressure bleeder to the fluid reservoir and then disconnected
> the line going into the ABS pump, from the forward-most line on the master
> cylinder, and connected a vacuum bleeder to it, to pull some of the air
> out.
> There was quite a bit of air, so I was hopeful, however it didn't change
> the
> pedal feel at all.
>
> So I went ahead and pulled the right rear wheel and hooked the vacuum
> bleeder to that caliper and (with the pressure bleeder still connected to
> the fluid reservoir) started pumping. After 15 minutes of getting only
> small
> droplets of fluid I started suspecting that I was again doing something
> wrong, which is when I came in to write this e-mail.
>
> I'm especially frustrated, because I have a manual here, but every time I
> do
> something it actually only makes things worse. At some point it has to get
> better, right?
>
> Seamus
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