So I ran all new brake lines on my 442.....i had a buddy come over and help me bleed all the brakes last week. Well today I started the car and the brake pedal goes right to the floor when I try to stop. The car stops when the pedal is at its full depression.

This is how I bled them.

I did it in order of rear passenger side first, rear drivers side, front passenger and finally front drivers side.

So I filled the master cylinder full with dot 3 brake fluid and had my buddy pump the brake pedal a bunch of times and had him keep his foot on it while I opened the bleeder screw and waited for the pedal to go to the floor.....than I closed the bleeder screw and than had him pump the brake pedal and repeated until I started getting the clean fluid coming out and filling into a clear bottle. While we did this we made sure the master cylinder topped up.

So i have no idea what I did wrong or didn't do.

So any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you guys!

 

That is the same way I would have done it. With out a pressure bleeder or pump this will take more time.

You don't have all the air out yet...Do it again.

 

Alternative methods are;
With a buddy in the car, open the bleed nipple and have him push the brake pedal down firmly, while the pedal is still on the floor nip up the bleed nipple and have him (or her, maybe your wife/girlfriend/daughter is helping) let the pedal up again. keep doing this until no bubbles come out. You may need to go round all four wheels to achieve this. You might need to bleed out some fluid before trapped air (bubbles in the fluid) come out.
You can let gravity do the work, take the cover off the master cylinder, then undo a nipple and let brake fluid come out until it is bubble free. Good excuse for a cup of tea while you do this, like an Englishman ever needs an excuse . It takes a bit longer doing it this way.
You can get kits that either suck fluid out (vacuum bleeders) or force it out (pressure bleeders). if you use one of these remember to keep a careful eye on the fluid level in the master cylinder reservoir, if it drops too low you will have to start again.
If you cannot get a good pedal at all you may have a bad master cylinder, often an old one will seem just fine until you bleed the brakes, then pushing the pedal to the floor may tear up the seal in the master cylinder when it travels past its normal stopping point.
I'm assuming the brakes are correctly adjusted on all corners of course.


Roger.

 

If you did not bench bleed the master cylinder, you will never get all the air out.

 

I thought that was warm beer. (Insert Lucas refrigerator joke here).

 

Granted the central Europeans know a thing or two about brewing beer, but we are still absolutely the best.
I believe it was a forgotten part of the deal after the fuss around 1776 was that we let you go your own way, but would have to make do with coffee and an alcoholic beverage that was so unpalatable it had to drunk at freezing point .


Roger.

 

There seems to be two schools of thought on this. The Olds Service Manual, as well as the Pontiac and Chevrolet, says bleed the closest wheel first, not the farthest. So it is left front, right front, left rear, right rear. There was an earlier thread on this, and it doesn't really seem to matter.

 

This here is the uknown. Is it a new master? If it is, you will need to do like redoldsman stated and bleed it.

The process you took bleeding furthest away from the master is what I would have done. I probably would have kept the bleeder open until I saw some air bubbles come out though.

 

I am actually picking up a new master and brake booster tmrw morning and made sure it came with a bleeder kit for the master. .....any help here would be greatly appreciated......I'm reading up on bench bleeding ....but what have you guys found works the easiest???

Thanks guys!!!!

 

Put it in a bench vise level, install your bleed kit.

Fill the master with fluid.

Use a dowel rod or screw driver and carefully plunge the piston many times, slowly.

Take your time. Over a period of a few minutes the air will escape.

When you think you are done, have a beverage and do it again. You then, are probably finished.

 

Or 5 small beverages then get the wife to hold the screw driver while you help plunger.

 

So long as the M/C is level and the plunger goes in and out, you're good.

I did it once in a parking lot, holding the M/C level in both hands, leaning my chest into it, with the handle of a small hammer against the plunger and the head of the hammer against a tree.

- Eric

 

When the lines are all brand new Ill gravity bleed while I do something else just be sure to check back before master goes dry. I've also had success with a dry clear plastic bottle and a couple feet of clear plastic 1/4" tubing. Drill a 1/4" hole in the bottle lid along with a 1/8" hole. Stick the rubbing into the 1/4" hole in the bottle lid, add some brake fluid to the bottle and screw the lid on making sure the end of the hose is in the brake fluid. Put the other end of the hose over the blender screw and open bleeder. Have a buddy slowly pump the pedal while you watch the clear tube for bubbles. When the bubbles have cleared up close blender and move to the next one till you have done all four. Takes a lot of fluid and if it's clean you can reuse it. When you've done all four I go around one more and give each one a single bleed. If all lines are tight with no leaks you should be good to go.

 

Looks like there are as many ways to bleed brakes as the number of shops my wife will visit to buy new clothes , but all the methods outlined above will work if you do it properly.
With a new master cylinder you will need to bench bleed it. It's something I never needed to do on European and Japanes cars of the same era btw. But you should have instructions with the new master cylinder, follow them and you should be fine, if you don't have instructions then follow Dons method. It will work.


Roger.

 

The fact that different GM divisions using exactly the same brake hardware recommend different methods for bleeding should tell you that it doesn't matter. Common sense should also tell you that on a dual-circuit brake system, where the front and back hydraulic systems are independent, that it really doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that you don't over-pressurize one half of the system and force the differential pressure switch valve all the way to one side of the distribution block, where it might stick.

 

don't gloss over the brake adjustment thing
Disk brakes generally need only assembly and bleeding, but drum brakes always have some sort of adjuster, and as part of the brake job it should be adjusted to bring the shoes very nearly in contact with the drum. Otherwise, you can use up the entire pedal travel just getting the shoes near the drum, which can feel a lot like air in the system.

Old adjusters are often rusty and don't move. I always replace with new [and lubed] or at least wire wheel 'em clean and grease 'em good to ward off oxidation.

 

Awesome post !!! A big step I myself didn't do back in the day. It cost me a brake job simply because I had no idea trying to do it myself. If CO was around in the 80's I would have saved alot of $$$.

 

If CO were around back in the 80's I might have been aware that I was buying a W30, or at least a real '68 442. Took me years to verify that.

 

Okay so new master cylinder is all bench bled and installed.....actually very easy.

Now the brake booster kicked my butt......i couldn't loosen any of the nuts behind the booster except for 1......i almost broke my wrist....well it felt that way when I felt a pop.......i tweaked my wrist for sure......gotta put some ice on it.

The part that gets me is that I had sprayed the the BB black before trying to uniinstall the factory one....so hopefully I get a refund on it as I just cleaned up the factory one and sprayed it black.


Thanks for the help guys!

now where is that Damn ice pack!!!

 

Bolting the master cylinder up gives it a solid place to hold it and the pedal makes a great tool that you can push with to bleed it but this is only my opinion. A vise and attempting to push plunger with something works too.

 

I didn't have a vice......did it on a work bench between to really heavy wooden shelves I have built .....worked very easily.....should have taken some pics. ..next time.