need brake help

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Ellik

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last weekend I finally got around to swapping rear-ends. Out with the stock IRS, in with a built and geared IRS from an '03.

I swapped my '01 brake calipers, lines and brackets onto the new rear-end. Bled the hell out of everything, and yet it feels like I have no brakes in comparison to what it was before? There is NO air in the lines, I know that. Hell, I had a vacuum pump hooked up to each brake and sucked a half-gallon of fluid through the lines. Took it to a shop, they said the same thing after they tried to bleed it. Told me there was no problem with my brakes. BUT, I have like 2" of pedal travel before I get 'solid' brakes where I had 'maybe' 1" before. Even once I hit some resistance, it doesnt feel like it has the grippy-stopping ability that it had before?

Any thoughts/suggestions?
 
ac427cobra

ac427cobra

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Ellik said:
last weekend I finally got around to swapping rear-ends. Out with the stock IRS, in with a built and geared IRS from an '03.

I swapped my '01 brake calipers, lines and brackets onto the new rear-end. Bled the hell out of everything, and yet it feels like I have no brakes in comparison to what it was before? There is NO air in the lines, I know that. Hell, I had a vacuum pump hooked up to each brake and sucked a half-gallon of fluid through the lines. Took it to a shop, they said the same thing after they tried to bleed it. Told me there was no problem with my brakes. BUT, I have like 2" of pedal travel before I get 'solid' brakes where I had 'maybe' 1" before. Even once I hit some resistance, it doesnt feel like it has the grippy-stopping ability that it had before?

Any thoughts/suggestions?
Click to expand...

Well, let me ask you this question: Did you have your brake system open (calipers off) for an extended period of time? Did the Master Cylinder run out of fluid? If you answered yes to the questions, you have air in the system and it's most likely trapped in your ABS system and bleeding won't get it out.

You have to activate the ABS system on a wet or sandy road. and then rebleed. That is if you have enough brakes to do that? Then repeat that process until your pedal returns. If you can't or don't want to do that you can take the car to the Ford dealer and they can bleed the system with a tool that will activate the ABS system and that will remove the air in the system.

MANY people have made the mistake of leaving brake systems open and that's just something you cannot do anymore with today's ABS braking systems.

FWIW

:thumbsup: :coolman: :beer:
 
006

006

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Did you bleed the MC?

If the fluid level in your reservoir went below the fill line and if it appeared drained, then you DID introduce air into the MC system, and you will have to bleed the damn thing first before you bleed the rears again.

You will have to bleed the right rear, left reat, right front and finally the left front.

I know how to assemble these things from scratch and know the process of bleeding them for the first time, and it is critical that you ensure that there is ZERO air in the MC unit first before you do the rest.
 
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Ellik

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it may have been an hour between disconnecting the soft lines from the hard lines, swapping everything onto the new IRS, wheeling it under and re-connecting. I kept an eye on the MC and kept adding fluid to keep it at FULL. It never dropped even close to the FILL line. Damnit! I thought I did a good job of bleeding the system too. :(

I dont know that I have enough brakes to activate the ABS.... How many times would I have to activate/ bleed to empty air out of the ABS? Any idea what a dealership would charge? Doesnt look like I have a choice now. For my own learning edification, how would I have disconnected the soft lines and plugged them for the time I needed to swap rear ends without getting air in the system?
 

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