I spent two hours trying to bleed these damn brakes had a decent feeling peddle and cranked it up...Boom peddle 3/4 to the floor. I put two quarts of fluid through the system and did not appear to be getting bubbles. This all started because I had a left rear cliper stick and not let go. I replaced all te brake hoses and put new hard lines on the trailing arms.

Do I need to keep bleeding or start looking elsewhere?

 

Opening both bleeders on each rear caliper?

 

Most likely leaking calipers

I had a similar problem. I'd bleed and bleed and bleed until no bubbles but that was with slow & gentle pedal pressing. So at some point I asked my assistant to pound the pedal and stand on it. Then on the subsequent pedal pressed I got azzloads of more air coming out of the bleeder. I guess the piston needed to get some serious pressure behind it before the bad seal showed its face.

 

I went through this as well. The real trick is the proper bleeding order. It is not farthest to closet like most cars. Make sure you consult the GM shop manual. I don't have it with me or I'd give you the order. Until I did this I could not get a firm pedal. As soon as we did the proper order....Bingo.

 

Well I am finishing up my $17 power bleeder tonight. I bought a 1 gallon sprayer at Lowes some 1/4"id tube and various fittings. Drilled a hole in an old Master cylinder cap and I'm gonna pump half a gallon through each caliper with both bleeders open in the rear at the same time. If this doesnt work I guess its time to start checking calipers. I'll really be pissed though cause these are barnd new stainless O-ring calipers and master cylinder from VBP.

 

I am in the same boat as you this week. New system with DOT-5 and having trouble bleeding. Let us know how you like the home made model after you get it all worked out. I had seriously considered making one of those home made pressure bleeders myself but I have so many "Work In Process" around here that I decided to spring $60 for the off the shelf model. The little brown truck should be here any minute.


On the rear I think it makes sense to bleed the inner screw beore the outer screw once you have fluid in both sides. Just my opinion.

-Mark.

 

Ok A quick update...What was supposed to be a quick little side track and then back to te suspension kit has turned into a royal PITA. First....The homade power bleeder did not work. I hooked it up had everything tight as I could get her and proceeded to pump a pint of brake fluid onto the garage floor as it blew past the master clynder cap. This could be resolved with the c-clamp and bar-stock cap with te fitting screwed in but I was seeing bubbles in the hose line out of the garden sprayer so I'm not sure if I would only be creating a bigger problem by using it anyway.

I was also pumping the pedal with the master cylinder cap on during the first bleed. now i'm bleeding with the cap off. I scrapped the garden bleeder....went with the half full(bleed tube submerged) gaderaide bottle sitting on top of the caliper and pumping the pedal myself. It appears that i m getting a firmer petal this time around so perhaps its working. I stopped cause I ran out of clean brake fluid and don't feel like going to autozone.

BTW I never got a consencus on this but according to te technition at Van Steel YOU BLEED FROM THE FARTHEST BLEEDER OUT AND THEN WORK TOWARD THE MASTER CLYNDER. He says he has done it that way for 30 years on these cars so i'm not gonna argure with him.

 

Don't hold out for concensus on how to bleed your brakes...it won't happen. Actually, when you get down to it. It doesn't really matter that much whether you start with the one farthest or the one closest, as long as you don't try to start in the middle and work your way out. The reason for working in one direction is to always give the air a way out and keep the air bubbles moving in the same direction until they get to a bleeder and out of the system.

Here's my complimentary brake help web page:

http://67.116.80.82/Vette/BrakeHelp/BrakeHelp.html

Also, keep that brake fluid away from any painted parts and always bleed with the master cylinder lid on...I've seen m/c's stick and then walk around and look down at the m/c just in time for it to unstick and squirt me in the eyes...ouch! Be careful.

 

OK, guys you are making this thing too hard. Forget all of the pumping, all of the home made pressure bleeders etc. and quit waisting so much fluid. It is very simple. Just get fluid flowing through the lines. You can do this in the normal old fashioned way by pumping and opening and closing the bleeder in the correct sequence. After it gets going stop all of the pumping and let the system drain by gravity. Allow the fluid to clear up as best that it will and close all of the bleeders and go to bed. Get up and open each bleeder until the little bit of air that has come to the top clears up and you are done. That`s it. It will all be gone and you will have brakes.

 

Believe your 30 year mechanic I guess. I will tell you this. I bled and bled and bled and got nowhere doing it fortheset to closest (standard amongst most cars). I followed the GM shop manual in which the order is different (don't have manual handy at work). It bled a hard pedal the first try using the GM sequence. I ran a second sequence just to ensure it was done. Before ehis I went through 2 quarts of fluid and afterwords used a pint at most. After I went through this, I posted the results here and a seasoned expert provided a detailed explanation as to why C3s had to be done as GM/Chevy instructs. I used no fancy power bleeders, or any special equipment. Just one guy pumping the pedal and one bleeding into a Gatorade bottle with a clear hose. that was over a year ago and the pedal is still as hard as a rock and can lock 'em up anytime. As one who works indirectly in the service industry with a number of service people, you sometimes should be aware of the guy who touts all of years doing a task. They sometimes are blinded by the overconfidence and won't look at a manual because "they know how to do it". When I worked in the service field directly, I trusted my manuals as gospel, and was sent to fix many problems the veteran worked on who didn't use the manual because he knew how to do it. It was amazing how many problems were fixed because I followed the proper procedure. It is good to solicit advise, but gather information from many and then decide what sounds right and makes sense. My original barke problem was an intermittent soft pedal. I had mechanics and advisors telling me all kinds of goofiness. I had three mechanics tell me the master cylinder was the culprit. These three were the consensus.....and they were right. The moral of the story is not to fully trust any one mechanic. Even good troubleshooters know they don't always get right. The best ones don't stop until they fix it. Just my 2 cents..........

 

Here is the bleed order for quick reference from the link above:

Right Rear Inner, Right Rear Outer, Left Rear Inner, Left Rear Outer, Right Front, Left Front

 

That's NOT the 'BOOK' method. It's L/R in, L/R out, R/R in, R/R out, L/F, R/F. It's closest to the furthest...opposite of NORMAL... remember is a Vette normal...

 

what he said. Proper order for the rears is...

left rear inner
left rear outer
right rear inner
right rear outer

Are you getting good fluid discharge out of all 6 bleeders? Are you calipers o-ringed? What kind of condition are the calipers in? You did bench bleed the master cylinder, right?

 

Here is the deal....I had 4 new VBP stainless o ring calipers installed a year and a half ago alonmg with a NEW VBP master Cylinder. my old Master cylinder was definately bad so I decided to do it all and not have to worry about brakes again. I also bought the VBP Stainless Hoses. The mechanic talked me out of putting them on because he said the Two piece fittings were a poriential leak source. He swears he "bled the hell out of them" using the gravity feed method and bench bleed the Master clynder. I always thought the brakes were a little spongy to me but not too bad.

Recently the car started handling poorly...pulling right then shooting left as soon as I hit the brakes. Eventually the left rear caliper locked up and would not let go. Knowing the hoses were old and a sticking caliper can be a sign of a bad hose...I went ahead and installed the stainless lines that were never put on the car a year and a half ago. I am now trying to bleed the system. I used the pump and close methed and went all the way around the car once. I have started again. The pedal is definately firming up....I'm using the gateraide bottle half full of fluid on the top of the caliper method and pumping myself....I'm getting very little fluid this time around as I pump my *** off. I'm going to finish going around the car using this method and see what I get. If this doesnt work I will pull the calipers and look at thenm next. I started with the hoses cause it was easiest and I already had the parts.

 

Then would it not be LF, RF, LR (I/O) then RR (I/O)?

I just qouted the link above assuming it was the book method, my bad.

 

That bleed order is not right for a C3 Vette.....If you can wait until Monday I will check it in my GM manual. If you do it in that order you will probaly never get a hard pedal. A few of us have continaully replied on these brake threads regarding this. I am going to give up soon.........

 

Man I reallty thought this would be a simple question and a 1 hr job. I'm here bleeding again tonight If I figure it out I will tell you how I did it.

 

Don't feel too bad. I struggled with bleeding a few times this week. Never could get it right. Tonight I found one reason why - one of the new calipers has a leak! The fluid was leaking out the boot on the drivers front side. I got a replacement but now I gotta re-replace it and re-bleed that one again.

Oh, I just LOVE my car

-Mark.

 

Its a corvette. There is no such thing as a 1 hour job. I spent hours and hours on my brakes.

 

$&*%^# BRAKES

I just finished bleeding all the way around. Had a pretty good pedal...got a good bit of air out tonight. was feeling pretty good....cranked up the car....Hello spunge bob square pants....just mush to the floor...they wont even pump hard.

What do you guys think? Start pulling calipers?