I just rebuilt two of my calipers as they were leaking. Put the system back together and even bench bled my master cylinder. Started using the traditional method of pumping the brakes. I know the system should drink a lot of fluid as two of the calipers are dry. However, I pump on the brake til my boys are blue and nothing happens. No pressure buildup in the pedal. I then opened a bleeder screw and pumped. Expected the fluid to squirt out when I pumped....nothing. No fluid is even leaving the MC. What am I doing wrong?

Before you give me the advice to buy a motive pressure bleeder, I'm not going to do this. They've already got enough of my money. Don't get me wrong but the motive deal is a great concept, but it broke more than my high school car did.

 

Did you bleed the MC really well. It can take up to 30-40 minutes on the bench fussing with it to get all the air out.

 

I didn't spend 30 or 40 minutes bench bleeding the MC but I do think I got it to the point where it should be.

 

Did you let it gravity bleed first?

 

I was surpised, my mechanic must have spent at least 15 minutes bench bleeding my master.

 

I guess I must be the luckiest guy in the world. I have only bench bled one master cylinder ever and it was as a last resort since I couldn't get brakes. It turned out the brake plunger rod was about a turn out of adjustment.

Try that, be sure the plunger is not bottoming out when you bolt the MC on. If it is, then the cylinder has started to move and is not fully retracted, so you will never get brakes.

 

Peace,,,Moosie

 

Ya, check the brake pedal pushrod length. I had to turn mine out after I bought a replacement master cylinder. It's a pain, because you're underneath the dashboard to do it.

I used a power bleeder for the first time last week. I had 4 new calipers and all new lines from the mas.cyl. on out. It took awhile to get the pressure bleeder hooked up correctly, but once it was, it worked well.

I then went back and did it the manual-way, with my daughter pumping the brakes as I bled them. That got some more air out of it.

It just takes a long time. Read up on gravity-bleeding and give that a try as well.

Good luck - Mark

 

No I didn't but I'll try. Do I open all 6 bleeder valves at the same time or just do one at a time. How long does it take to gravity bleed?

 

I would do one caliper at a time. It may take a while to do all of them. Just open the bleeder screw, make sure the MC is full and wait until you have a steady amount of fluid coming out of the bleeder screw. Once you do, close the screw. It is important to make sure that you always maintain a fluid level in the MC above the lines, otherwise you will have to start all over, including bench bleeding.

Once you gravity bleed, you can pressure bleed with a helper.

 

I bought a hand pump from ecklers, I had bought all new calipers from gm and pumped most of the air out then gravity bleed overnight then pumped them the old fasioned way. now I can stop on a dime. either way it is a PITA.

 

This appears about once a month, and I always see the same response; vacuum, gravity, etc. It always comes down to bleeding in the right sequence. Not the traditional farthest to closet like your mechanic buddys may say, but the proper GM Corvette sequence. It is different. Double check the GM shop manual, but is should be LR, RR, LF, RF. If you fail to do it this way you will bleed until you are blue in the face! I have experienced it more than once. The last time I was assisting on an emergency brake job on a club road trip. The guy bleeding was a stock car racer/car builder, and would not listen to me for about (2) hours. He even vacuum bled with a compressor to no avail. After having my daughter double check the GM manual at home, I convinced him to bleed in the proper sequence and we had a hard pedal the first pass. He shook my hand. The way I learned this was a buddy and myself bled mine until we were blue in the face in the standard sequence, farthest to closest. NEVER got a hard pedal. When my stubborn, ignorant self decided to crack the manual, I learned that that old sequence was wrong. I did it per the manual and had a hard pedal on the first pass. It was explained here a couple of years ago and to sum it up, if you bleed in the wrong sequence the air bubbles kind of ping pong back at forth at the proportioning valve, and you never drive them far enough down to get them out of the system.

I can almost bet a paycheck that if you follow the proper GM Corvette sequence you will get a hard pedal very quickly.

 

On the rears does it matter if you do the inboard or outboard bleeders first?

 

I was in the process of gravity bleeding my entire system last year when Lars came to stay. We go out to my garage and he asks what I got going. I tell him I am waiting for my brakes to gravity bleed. He gets a smile on his face and asks if I have any tubing that will fit on a bleeder. I say yes and get him some. He procedes to go to the rear and sticks the tube in his mouth and gives a good draw. Brake line full.He did the other three the same way. Then I got in the car and pumped and pressed about 2 or 3 times at each wheel and they were done.
Total time...Under 1/2 hour!

Also afterwords he stated that the beer we were drinking at the time,Labatt, was only good for getting the taste of brake fluid out of your mouth!!!(BEER SNOB)