soft pedal

[Mackpipes]

I just rebuilt my rear brakes after finding a dragging piston. Everything went back togother fine. However, after bleeding the brakes TWICE with no bubbles comming out, It feels like I still have air in the lines. :roll: I'm at a loss. Any suggestions?

Ted

[Jase007]

Pipes...

Scrap the carerra calipers, or better yet, give them to me for safe keeping and buy a set of big reds! :o I think you'll need 17" wheels for those so I can hang on to your 7" and 9"s in the meantime. :wink:

Jase

[Charlie Stylianos]

Ted,

Tony mentioned this once, but the new seals are so tight that they tend to suck the piston back into the cylinder bore. They will eventually loosen up and the pedal will feel stiffer. I had this exact same problem after I rebuilt all four calipers. I had to double pump the pedal at first until the seals loosened up and the pedal firmed up a bit.

Also, beating on the calipers with a rubber hammer during the bleed will help vibrate the air bubbles loose and out the bleeder.

[Mackpipes]

Charlie,
How long did it take for the seals to loosen up?

Jason,
I can't believe after buying you a set of 22" chrome fikse's for your 356 in return for helping me move, you now want my 7's and 9's. Some people you just can't please! :roll:

[Charlie Stylianos]

Charlie,
How long did it take for the seals to loosen up?

About 30-50 miles of back road driving.....lots of brake applications. I felt the pedal get stiffer as the miles ticked by.

[Mackpipes]

Sounds like I have a good excuse to attend the fun-run. :D

[Maurice P]

ted,
the exact same thing happened to me 2 weeks ago after i completely rebuilt my front calipers and bled the brakes. The pedal would only get stiff after the 2nd and 3rd pump. Took the car to Minh at performance pitstop (definitely not my first choice) and he tells me my master cylinder was shot. $620 later it was fixed. I think he knew he had me by the balls cause the Columbus DE was only 2 days away. This is not the first negative encounter I've had w/ them.

For your sake, I hope Charlie is right.

(and hey, if you need a MC - i have my old one - which i bet still works like a charm)

[APKhaos]

Ted,
Marc had the same problem, after fitting his new mega-brakes and bleeding them quite a few times with no improvement. He bought the car over, and it was fixed in quick time. The problem is that the piston seals have a high initial stiffness, which draws the piston back after the brakes are released. Its easy to fix.

Do this, one caliper at a time - RR, LR, RF, LF:

Pull the new pads. Fit some old pads. Depress the brake pedal. This gets the pistons out beyond where they will be with the new pads. Now, remove the old pads, then carefully depress the pistons until you can JUST get the new pads back in. Bleed the caliper, while whaling on it with a rubber mallet to shake out any trapped bubbles.

Your pedal will be hard after that process, which does not take long at all.

The alternative is to use them as is until the piston seals wear in. I'm strongly against this option. Murphy says that the chances of needing your brakes in a serious hurry even once in this period is high enough not to take the risk. No time to pump when that happens :(

Happy hammering :)

[BW911]

Ted, Just a thought, but if you were bleeding with the motive machine, maybe try one more bleed the old-fashioned two-man way. Seems to produce a firmer pedal than the machine way, sometimes. Can you train Otter to push the pedal when you tell him?

- Bill W.

[Marc A]

I'll second what Tony says, and what Bill says.

The last 3 times I bled the brakes, I used the motive to flush and the "Edelbach" to bring the pedal up the old fashion way.

[SRISER]

22" Fiskes on 356...sweet...I saw a guy in a Honda with some cool neon valve stem caps. Looks so cool driving down the road...like a little circle of light around your wheel...very spacey. Would be a good addition to the bling you got on the 356. Hold on while I puke.

[Jase007]

Pipes:

These are what I was really looking for...

http://www.victoriatire.com/pictures/front_page_spinner.jpg

You see, the spinning center changes the camber in the corners and helps the caster grip the tarmac better all the while providing more "feedback" through the steering wheel and increasing the "bouncy bouncy" effect of the unsprung weight (because of the new lightweight space age material construction) allowing the leaf springs to do a better job angling the tire to the road as it hops in the direction you are turning getting you closer to the center apex thing after you go through the corner. It's a wicked advntage on the straights too!

:lol:

Jason

[Mackpipes]

Leaf springs! You need to change out that old school suspension out for some airbag suspension and some switches, you know, like in that vanilla Pepsi comercial. :lol:

[targa911man]

Autothority replaced my brakes last year and told me they'd be soft for 50-100 mi., which in fact was the case. Closer to 50 mi.

[BW911]

Jase, get those wheels and you'll want to trade your 356 for an Escalade.

:wink:

- Bill W.

[KeithLambert7]

Charlie,
How long did it take for the seals to loosen up?

Jason,
I can't believe after buying you a set of 22" chrome fikse's for your 356 in return for helping me move, you now want my 7's and 9's. Some people you just can't please! :roll:

Hey I've got a 356 too, need any help moving? Where's the the line start for the free wheels?? Sheesh Jason, what a deal how'd you fanagle that one!?

:shock:

Keith

[Jase007]

Bill:

true that...

Keith:

For some reason Iwas having a hard getting the 22" rubber under the fenders. Maybe I need IROC flares.... :lol:

Jason

[Mackpipes]

Well it feels as though my brake pedal it back where it should be. Jason helped me with a manual bleed on Sunday. That and the dead blow hammer seemed to do the trick. Thanks to all for the feedback.

Ted