zbomb5610

iTrader: (2)

So i have been posting a few threads without any luck on getting my brakes to work.

First I thought it could have been the fact that I didnt bleed my rear brakes, bled all of my brakes many times, still having soft pedal without any brakes at all. just goes straight to the floor, very soft.

I replaced the master cylinder and brake booster today since it sounded like some air getting sucked in somewhere around that area but I still have no brakes at all.

I bled the master, I am going to rebleed the brakes again, but I need to figure out why I still don't have any brakes.

I can't stop at all, no exaggeration, there is something seriously wrong with my brakes.

car idles fine, sounds good, can take off and go fast I am sure (not dumb enough to try without brakes). but I just can't stop.

I have been testing it out in my garage trying to move a few feet and then hit the brakes but there are no brakes.

I upgraded to the ls1 brakes and calipers. I bled all lines, replaced master cylinder and brake booster. Even when the 383 was first built my brakes were really crappy, i thought it was a vacuum issue but I did have some braking power at that point, now I have zero. I rebuild the 383 myself over the past several months and changed everything out that I needed, and no brakes.

I checked all my vacuum lines going into the intake manifold and they all seem good, nothing seems to be messed up there and car idles fine.

I am wondering if there is a kink somewhere in the lines or maybe a busted line and if that would cause my problem?

I really really need some help, I am getting pissed that I have had a running car for almost a week and I can't drive it anywhere since I have no brakes.

looking for suggestions on what to try to troubleshoot. could there be something wrong with the module that all of the brake lines connect into?

thanks.

mattyj385

iTrader: (1)

did you ever remove the ABS module?

zbomb5610

iTrader: (2)

yes, I had it completely removed from the car when I painted the engine bay and while i was rebuilding the 383. it sat in the garage for about a year.

does it need some special bleeding? do I need to troubleshoot the unit somehow?

BlackBird87

iTrader: (6)

You got have air in the lines somewhere, maybe in the abs block if you still have in even without vacuum the pedal shouldnt be soft. rebleed em

zbomb5610

iTrader: (2)

would you recommend just rebleeding the brakes the regular way several times, or do i need to bleed it somewhere at the abs module?

someone mentioned bleeding the proportioning valve which I don't know where it is or how.

zbomb5610

iTrader: (2)

So today I redid the bench bleeding of the master cylinder to make sure I did it right, then I went ahead and bled the 2 abs bleeder screws which had some air come out, not a lot but some for sure.

then I went around to the rear calipers and I bled it this time, the thing is I was unbolting the brake line when I was bleeding initially rather than using the bleeder screws, this time I used the bleeder screws with some rubber hose and submerged the other end of the hose in brake fluid and I had a lot of air come out of each of the rear two calipers.

I tried to do the front passenger side but I stripped the bleeder screw, I just upgraded to ls1 front calipers and they were pretty badly rusted so they stripped very easy, now I am stuck without having the front two calipers bled.

the brake pedal still doesn't feel much firmer though, but I guess I need to bleed those front calipers first before worrying about that.

just need to figure out the best way to get those stripped bleeder screws off now. I tried vice grips with no luck, tried one of those stripped bolt sockets but the bleeder part is too deep for it to fit on good enough.

can I bleed the front brakes without doing it through the bleeder screw?

going to try some wd-40 and vice grips again, maybe I will have luck and I can just replace the bleeder screws.

Badazz 97 TA

iTrader: (18)

i dont know why you were un-bolting the brake line itself trying to bleed them. you need to use the bleeder screws bro. The bleeders are at the high point where air wants to go thats why you need to use em

draggin97s10

iTrader: (2)

you need to bleed them correctly it will require another person. the rear brakes on fbodys take alot of bleeding.

get a friend. have them pump the brakes release the bleeder screw the peddle will go to the floor. have them hold there. tighten screw and repeat. this will get the air out. keep an eye on the resevoir, make sure to keep fluid in it.

draggin97s10

iTrader: (2)

bleeder screws are a 10mm

zbomb5610

iTrader: (2)

i know brother, figured that out today, bled the master, abs, and rears correctly, front passenger bleeder screw got stripped, so i put some wd40 on it and I am going to try to break it loose a little later.

my roommate was helping me and then he went to work, so wont be able to retry the fronts till tonight or early tomorrow.

Revson

iTrader: (60)

I just got done redoing an 82 Collectors Edition Vette for a guy. I replaced all 4 calipers and rotors, master cylinder, and proportioning valve. I could not get the brakes to bleed, I had a friend help me, tried a power bleeder, nothing, really frustrating. So I finally decided to backtrack everything, take one thing off at a time and try to figure out what was going on. Finally found one of the original rubber lines to one of the rear calipers had a small hole in it. Not enough to even drip fluid, but enough to suck in just enough air to make the brakes impossible to bleed, also inside the hose had a small chunk of rubber broke loose in it. I replaced the rubber hoses, all 4, and the brakes bled fine. So you might want to check any rubber lines if you haven't gone to braided.

Badazz 97 TA

iTrader: (18)

i think his issue was not bleeding them correctly. once he does it the right way he should be good. hopefully

zbomb5610

iTrader: (2)

hopefully man, but that caliper bleeding screw wouldn't come out, tested the driver side and it opens up fine, I took the caliper into a shop, hoping they can weld something on it and get it off, going to call them tomorrow around noon, will keep everyone updated.

worst case scenario is I have to buy another caliper and paint it red again which would suck.

thanks

mattyj385

iTrader: (1)

i'm not saying this is correct, but someone on here once said that if you take the ABS module off you need to hook the car up to a GM TECH 2 computer to properly bleed the ABS module. may sound stupid but just to give you an example, i work at a shop in Virginia and we had a Ford Escape Hybrid with a computer controlled ABS module that we replaced and then had to take it to the dealer after finding out they have to hook it up to their computer to bleed the brakes.... pretty stupid, ended up costing the dude $7000 altogether. XP

spcearle

iTrader: (9)

as from my understanding the abs is a crap shoot....sometimes there is a switch i was told in it that needs the tech 4 to unlock...some times you luck out i know i did mine and was lucky and was able to bleed old school but i know others that had to get their cars brought to a dealer...as for rused or siezed bleeders....i'm from ny and rust is an obvious prob on cars...i always learned to use the tighten loosin method on bolts and especially bleeders....if you use preferebly a wrench or 1/4 drive to be able to feel if things are turning good or binding....give bolts agood tighten jerk to break the trhreads and then loosin them(if they are binding loosin tighten loosin tighten.....really siezed bolts and such heat up realgood with small torch and when nice and hot hit it with a good lub spray and let the heat pull the lube in.......stripped or rounded bolts///remember them crappy 12 pts that arent worth a **** for much anything alot of times you can tap a similiar or slightly smaller size onto them and get a tight enough fit to work( 3/8 is slightly smaller then 10mm...1/2 slightly smaller then 13mm....so forth)

zbomb5610

iTrader: (2)

so i think my brakes are good now, still have the car on jack stands as of right now but the pedal is super hard, getting some good pressure now. feels like it is supposed to.

I replaced that passenger side caliper which sucks since it is silver and my driver side is red now, gonna have to fix that.

just needed to get that extra bit of air out of the front calipers.

wanted to say thanks, can't believe i built a 383 from top to bottom taking my time on everything and I had trouble bleeding the brakes correctly.

if everything works out well with the brakes you guys will see a new thread with some vids and sound clips for sure. and hopefully a dyno sometime next month.

mattyj385

iTrader: (1)

awesome dude! very glad you got it sorted out, can't wait to see pics and videos

jaycenk

iTrader: (1)

Let me ask you a question. Go out to the car and look at the LS1 callipers and tell me if the bleeder valve is on the top or bottom of the callipers. Post back what you find. and everyone else shush if you know lol.

zbomb5610

iTrader: (2)

well I am not that dumb, all the bleeder screws are on top. had that right from the beginning at least.

my1994z28

iTrader: (3)

Glad you got them working,I was going to say that maybe you had a brake hose collapsed,It is possible for them to do this on the inside and you would never really know it unless you knew it was possible..Post up some video..