I bled the brakes on the mav and the fluid is now clean..There is no air bubbles at the four corners... My peddle is still very spongy and I suspect that it is the master cyl... How can I bleed the M/C while still on the car ? also if there is anyone out there that has an idea of what might be the problem please let me know... thanks...
Hi Ken, they have a small kit consisting of a couple of plastic fittings (the same size as your brake line fittings) and two small clear hoses, you usually get them with a new M/C, you screw the plastic fittings into the M/C and run the small hoses into the reservoir and just lay the M/C lid on them to hold them in place, then gently push your brake pedal until all air is gone, if you bled the brakes until you got clean fluid and no air, that should have done it for the M/C also, if they are still spongy I would suggest bleeding the brakes again and see if that helps, if you disconnect the lines from the M/C you will have to do it ALL over again anyhow, I had to bleed my brakes twice to get them to work and feel right, I still had a lot of air in the rear lines.
You can bleed the mc just like the wheels. Just pump it up and loosen one fitting until the fluid escapes. Make sure the fluid stays full because you can lose it fast. Do each fitting 3-4 times and it should clear up if that's your problem. Be prepared to make a mess. It's hard to catch all the fluid coming out. I usually find an old towel or something to stuff under the mc unless I'm messing with a junker.
Make sure the brakes are adjusted correctly. Look at the brake lines to see if there is one of the rubber lines that is ballooning. There still may be some air in the lines. Normally a master cylinder will not cause spongy brakes unless it is letting air in the system through a bad seal. They normally either work or not. Do you have any peddle fade (when you hold constant pressure on the pedal does it fall slowly)?
I bled the M/C before I installed it, all the rubber lines are new... I adjusted the rear brake shoes before I started bleeding them, not sure if I ran them out enough just enough to have a close fit to the drums... dose the front disc have an adjustment ? I went around the car 4 times farthest to closest... Also it still has the drum/drum proportioning valve w/disc/drum m/c could that be the problem ?
Ok try this, jack up the rear and readjust the brakes until while spinning the tire, you can hear the shoes barely contact the drum, do this for both sides, see if it's any better after that, if not I still say bleed them again, I had bled mine so much the second time I knew there was no air left in the rear lines and all was good, the little lady had to have cortizone injections in her knee after we bled them she pumped them up so many times.
I'll do that after work... Thanks... I have an adjustable m/c rod so once I get a solid peddle, I can adjust the peddle hight with it...
air can get trapped in the weirdest places. i would bleed the system at each and every connection that you can open. start at the master cylinder and work your way through the system. start with the rear system first then do the front. have lots of brake fluid and some one with a strong leg to keep pushing the brake pedal. only light effort on the pedal and no rapid pumping it up. that will aerate the fluid and you will have to let it sit over night before it will be ready to bleed again. the better method is to get one of the pressure bleeders and dont pump it over 7 psi.
I have a motive pump up brake bleeder, $70 bucks from Jegs... I got mad when I couldn't get the plate to seal on top of the M/C, I think it would work better if I drilled and tapped a spare M/C lid... It's a nice tool otherwize...
i have that motive pump. i will put a 2x4 on top of the big black flat adaptor and use a c-clamp to seal it. that works really well.
