Just rebuilt all my clalipers, how to bleed
 

I just rebuilt all my calipers with Pelican rebuild kits. I pinched the overflow tube, and capped the brake lines asap when removing them. Naturally, there was a siginificant amount of brake fluid in the calipers themselves, when I disassembled them to clean and put the new seals in. I put them all back on the car and pushed a pint of brake fluid though the system with my pressure bleeder, hitting the calipers with a rubber mallet, but there must be tons of air in the system as the pedal is horrible.

Any tricks to getting all the air out after a rebuild? I was going to get another pint of fluid and repeat the process, but not sure if that will do the trick.

Thanks,
Doug

One of the tricks I was taught was to "exercise" each caliper using some totally worn out pads and an expander tool. With the pedal pump the brakes (with the "padless" pads installed on one) until the pistons are fully extended, them push them all the way back using the expander, repeat this process 5 times per caliper in the same order you bleed and bleed after each 5 rep "exercise".. when done go around and bleed one last time.

As simple as it may sound go to your FLAPS and get the one man bleed bottle for under $10.00 and about 6' of clear tube from HD.

Jack the rear as high as you dare to allow any remaining trapped air in the line to creep up and back to the rear calipers then work the fronts.

Place catch bottle higher than the calipers and the car itself, open the valve and start pumping until more air is out of the system. No need to open and close the valve while doing this the fluid in the line will keep air from coming back to the calipers. Also as not to damage the MC place a piece of 2X4 block behind the pedal, you do not want to depress all the way to the floor but press hard and quickly. WATCH THE AIR GO UP THE TUBE :D

I had to do this about 3-4 times to get all the remaining air out of my system, but I used 4 different systems, 2 man, Vacuum, Reverse Bleed and finally the one man bottle trick.

This method also use the least amount of new fluid.

PM me if you have any detailed questions.

Jim

+1, positioning the new pads as close to the rotors will help as well.

Those are both good ideas. My calipers, themselves, were full of air after the rebuild. However, the lines should only have a foot or so of air in them, as I did cap them quickly, and never allowed the brake resevoir (sp?) to empty.

Got an assistant? This is a 15 min job with two people, just did two new front calipers a few weeks ago. Assistant pumps them, you open the bleeders, rinse and repeat, same as any other car I've done.

What Scott said. Tried multiple methods (including powerbleeders) after rebuilding my calipers and the best way by far was the 2 person procedure.

+1 with Scott.

If you have trouble finding an assistant try louring him with beer and pizza. Worked on my brother.

I think I will try the 2 person. Seems like the high pressure / release really pushes the air through the system, unlike the power bleeder, which pushes at a low pressure. Will report back ...

All of the above. Don't be afraid to drive it a few days and do it again. That gives me the best results but I am not as thorough as DRACO and have not tried all of his ideas.

However, when I finally nailed it, the pedal was unbelievably firm at the top. Very little travel with a stock set up.

Hanging on for a solution as I'm planning the same rebuild.

THANKS!

You didn't by chance put the calipers on the wrong side?
Bleeders need to be at the top of the calipers.

after a rebuild the calipers even when bled will be spoongy a bit. need to heat em up a bit then bleed again. many other threads on that issue.

I do suspect I will need to put some miles on them, then bleed them again. In retrospect, I suppose I could have filled the calipers up with fluid before installing them. Not sure how much difference that would make. I did make sure the bleeders are on top. :)

I excercise the new seals before I put the calipers back on the car. Using the same method with wood and C clamps to get them out. A half dozen times on each side seems to work good.

I rebuilt my master cylinder and replaced my rubber brake lines and did the gravity bleed method. It worked great. Go in this order RR, LR, FR, LF. Put clear tubing on the caliper bleed valve in the order just mentioned and do them one at a time. The clear tubing needs to stretch vertical with the end above the level of the brake reservoir. Keep filling the reservoir as the level drops.