Cascade Crew

jchaussee · Member Joined: 14 Nov 2010 Posts: 1318 Location: renton

Non third gen question, but I do need them fixed so I can tow my camaro to the painter. I will start at begining. I got new tires and rims, but my calipe on my passenger front would rub my rotor. Either then that problem the brakes worked fine. Have had bed loaded and no problems with breaking. Also it is a 1996 chevy 2wd. So I figuered my rubbing was due to caliper so I replaced it. Turns out not problem, but that is for another time. Anyways I put caliper on and pressed on brakes to get ready to bleed. Caliper got stuck. Would not disengsengage. Put c clamp on it but would not press in. Had to undo brake line and use a screwdriver to push piston on to get it off. So I got a new caliper. Same thing. So I thought it was rubber line collapsing. Replaced that. Still same problem. I tried bleeding brakes with wife. An intial flow of fluid would come out followed by massive large air bubbles. Did this for about 32 ounces of fluid. Never let reservoir get under half. So I then bought a mityvac one mman brake bleeder device. Still lots and lot of air bubbles. So here I am. Now remember. Everything worked fine before caliper change. I have put on two different ones, though they are cheap autozone ones. New hose. I went to fullsizechevy forum, but no help. They were coming up with things like is rotor good, bearings packed, and such. Whether or not they are that does not explain problem of why caliper will not release from rotor, because everything worked before. So please, please help. I am at aloss and have spent probaly 20 hours dealing with this, and not had a vehicle for a few weeks, and most importantly have not been able to tow my camaro to the painter[/i]

MrMike98 · Member Joined: 18 May 2010 Posts: 231 Location: Bremerton

just a thought..

master cyl.
you have to push brake pedal sloooowly or some thing happens in master cyl.. this will not hurt. its just much harder to bleed.

just my bad memory.,so dont quote me
good luck
-maybe try vacuum bleeding.

mike

jchaussee · Member Joined: 14 Nov 2010 Posts: 1318 Location: renton

Yeah. I have the mityvac which does the vacume bleeding. I have been using it but I have probabl bled it for 3 hours and still just have mostly air and very little fluid coming out.

Dewey316 · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 3:19 pm Post subject:

Did you gravity bleed the brake before trying to pump? When I have a caliper off, I let it gravity bleed for a while to try to get any large air pockets out. Once the fluid is in there, unless you undo the line, and crack the bleeder, you may not be able to overcome the hydrolic force to push the piston in.

I would start by not using the pedal at all, after the new caliper is on until fluid is coming out the bleeder screw by only gravity. Then proceed to bleed as normal.

May I ask what the other problem was? Maybe there is another symptom there that explains a more complex problem in the brake system.

--John

jchaussee · Member Joined: 14 Nov 2010 Posts: 1318 Location: renton

the previous problem that made me think I needed to replace that caliper is that the caliper would tilt towards the rotor and rub it. I know believe that is the spindle because it still rubs. I gravity bleed it for awhile and when it bleed it even normal , the initial burst of fluid will be air free , so probly 12 inches of tubing, then just air after air. I have bleed so much fluid out of it , that it is becoming ridiculas. I mean it should have been real simple. But I will try gravity bleeding it again. But if I just crack it open seems to be just fluid coming out. How long does it normaly need to be gravity bleed. It is probaly about twice the size of my camaro caliper

Dewey316 · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 3:41 pm Post subject:

You shouldn't have to gravity bleed it long, and especially since you vacuum bled it too.

Maybe it is time to pressure test the lines and such, it sounds like maybe air is getting into the system upstream.

jchaussee · Member Joined: 14 Nov 2010 Posts: 1318 Location: renton

That is what I am wondering. How exactly do I pressure test it. I have had my vacume on the bleeder screw over night to see if I was losing air but it held, so air perhaps is getting in after I crack bleeder?? It is just frustrating. And I don't want to go and start replacing stuff I don't need to

aaron_sK · Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 8:33 pm Post subject:

Just a quick thought, is this an ABS truck?

I put stainless brake lines on a BMW with ABS recently and we had a hell of a time bleeding the brakes until we found that pumping up the pedal about a dozen times before opening the bleeder was the trick. Otherwise it was just air city.

jchaussee · Member Joined: 14 Nov 2010 Posts: 1318 Location: renton

Yes it is an ABS truck. I will try that method also. It is just mind boggling

jchaussee · Member Joined: 14 Nov 2010 Posts: 1318 Location: renton

Still haven't got it fixed, so if anybody has any other suggestions, I am open toanything now

turbo_jimi · Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2011 9:46 pm Post subject:

It's really a 2 person job and if I remember correctly, you don't turn the vehicle on to bleed the brakes (I'm not 100% sure about this part). John (RSFreak) and I had to do this to my 98 Blazer about 4 years ago when my rear brake line ruptured. After installing the brake line, we added more brake fluid to the resevoir and filled a coke bottle half full with brake fluid. (rinse the bottle out first Wink

) then we bled each brake caliper, making sure we could no longer see air bubbles. I believe we had to repeat this process to each bleeder valve 4 times, making sure we kept the resevoir full. I have heard that this can mess with the ABS system if dirty fluid travels back into that system, but I got lucky for once since most of my original brake fluid drained through the rupture.

Or.....

Gimp it over to Les Schwab...maybe they can help you.

Either way, good luck!