Street Rat

I believe that pertains to the rear Wilwood setup.
My Wilwood front calipers have bleed screws above the cylinder bores.

Yea I always use a mallet also.

I borrowed an air operated bleeder from a friend.
Looks like it shouldn't take too long to bleed using that tool.

Big2Bird

Not quite. Do them vertical.

Street Rat

I'm going to take your advice.

I'll thank you now.


Yep. Looked again. You are correct about the bleeder location being a bit lower than the cylinder. Must have had some of my back meds that day.

Big2Bird

Copy of the originals, kinda, but they sure screwed up on the bleeder locations.

RBrid

I wasn't aware when I originally bolted my Wilwoods on with blue Loctite. I foresee some pain to unbolt them when time comes to bleed them.

Street Rat

Today I went after bleeding the brakes on the new front Wilwood caliper/rotor install.

I bled the front Wilwoods in a vertical position in order to get all of the air out. I used the GM service manual's sequence when bleeding. I used my Motive bleeder as well as a Matco air operated bleeder that I borrowed. I am 99% certain that all air is out of the system. I get no bubbles from any bleeder valve. Been through almost three quarts of brake fluid.

The bottom line is I have no pedal.

Not spongy but the pedal goes to the floor. I try to pump the pedal and it doesn't pump up.

I've bled Corvette brakes many times but this is the first time with no pedal afterwards.

More advice please.

jimvette999

Assuming you bench bled the master without forcing the piston all the way home (cutting lip seal), I'd have to think the master is bad. Properly sized Wilwood master or original?

Street Rat

Factory type master cylinder that was already on the car.

The system has been bleed so many times I probably wore it out.

jimvette999

Sure seems like a bad master....fluid bypassing the lip seals as pressure is applied. Look in reservoir as pedal is depressed and look for mayhem. Can't imagine what else could be wrong assuming there is no fluid loss at any caliper. Do you have power brakes? Is the car running when you get no pedal pressure?

Street Rat

No mayhem in the mc. Front has a squirt upwards when pedal depressed . Rear does nothing.

Power brakes. No pedal on or off. Test drive was the same.

Big2Bird

Sounds like the place to start to me.

Street Rat

Should I have a stream upward in the rear reservoir also? I do not. Bad master cylinder for sure it would seem.

Big2Bird

SSBC has an aluminum m/c that looks identical to stock. $100 or so. Get the 11/8" bore for pb.

Street Rat

Another job that has snowballed into extra work and cost. Story of my life.

Big2Bird

No worries. Wilwood rears are a coming too. Lol

Street Rat

I went ahead and ordered a Raybestos new master cylinder. It bolts right up to what I have without modifications.

I can't swallow the expense of a custom mc right now. Although I would love to have that black Wilwood mc it's too pricey.

So waiting on parts until Tuesday. Then I get to rebleed again.

Oh joy.

Street Rat

Bench bled my new mc. Installed mc and went to bleed brakes.

I started by using a vacuum type bleeder setup. The kind that runs off of air pressure.

Could not get a pedal so I bled with my Motive pressure bleeder.

Still can't get a pedal after much bleeding.

Found a slight leak at the fitting on the left front steel line. Parts on order.

I think I'm going to bench bleed the mc again. I read here that I should have tilted the mc forward and backward while bench bleeding. I didn't do that.

The saga continues. Stay tuned.

Street Rat

I received my new lf brake line on Saturday.

Got it all buttoned up after bench bleeding the mc again. I bled all four wheels using my Motive pressure bleeder. I also replaced the brake light switch with a tool. The tool holds the internal piston of the combination valve in a neutral position while bleeding.

The result was NOT the pedal that I was looking for. It wasn't spongy nor was it rock hard as I had expected. So I took her for a test drive after removing the tool and reinstalling the brake light switch.

Everything seemed to work fine just driving around the neighborhood. I had a decent pedal so I planned to bed the pads and rotors in. That I did early in the morning on a semi-deserted road. The Wilwood pad break-in procedure is quite extensive. I followed the instructions the best that I could considering traffic.

So by now I'm really feeling these brakes grab as they should. There is no more pesky brake indicator light on the dash. The pedal isn't rock hard but the car stops well.

I'm going to say that this brake job is finally completed successfully.

Thanks to all who contributed to the thread.

Craig

caskiguy

Just have to say although you suffered some aggravation with the brakes your thread taught me a great deal as I'll be going down the same road soon. And you finally had success which is great.
Hope the brakes are functioning fine still.

Street Rat

If you have any questions feel free to send a pm.

I've got to check the rear brake runout. I've got the dreaded light again. Sorry to say things aren't as I'd like.