black00ssFL

iTrader: (24)

Ok, this will be a lengthy story since there are many things that have happend and possible solutions I've tried.

First, a couple months I installed an SJM line lock. Everything went smoothly except for when I intially installed it, I put the solenoid in backwards . Went for the first test drive and figured that out, came back and switched it around and now it "works".

I bled the brakes normally after doing the line lock. At the time I was not aware of having to bleed out the abs block also. Basically since then I've had a spongy pedal that will hit the floor. It won't even lock up the front brakes well enough to hold the tires. I have a 3400 stall and when I use the LL at the drag strip it pushes right through it. On the street I go only get to about 1100 rpms before it pushes through the brakes. When I footbrake it, I can only get to about 1400 rpms. Before I installed the LL I was footbraking it to 2200 rpms no problem.

So I go to a chevy dealership and have them try to cycle the solenoids in the abs block to bleed it out. They tell me their tech 2 can't communicate with the abs block (have a tune using efi live, don't know if that's the problem or not). So I say f-it and buy the abs delete kit from sjm figuring the air in the abs module is causing the spongy feel and poor front brake performance.

I install the kit yesterday and bleed the brakes (btw, each time I've bled i'm using the mightyvac pump). EVERYTHING IS THE SAME. Still won't hold the LL or the footbrake and the pedal is spongy. I'm pissed to say the least. So then I figure, well maybe the MC ran dry and I have to bench bleed that. So this morning I bench bleed the MC and reinstall everying and bleed again. AGAIN NO DIFFERENCE. I'm checking and checking for leaks, but there is none. The ONLY thing I notice is a small bit of fluid coming out of the rear of the MC where it meets with the power booster

Is my MC shot? Anyone have any suggestions on ANYTHING I might be missing?

I am so close to just pushing this damn car off a cliff. Everything I do ends up taking twice as long as everyone else, and I hit every problem associated with the job. The abs delete kit supposedly takes 2 hours.....well it took me all damn day, and I'm pretty mechanically inclined!

95GreenZ28

iTrader: (70)

I would say your hunch is correct. If you have no air in the lines and still no braking power you are prob looking at a bad MC. Hopefully someone that knows for sure will chime in Good luck on it man

black00ssFL

iTrader: (24)

After doing some research, it seems this is also a symptom when a line lock solenoid goes bad. Is it possible to damage the solenoid if installed backwards, running fluid through it, stopping multiple times, and then activating it with fluid installed backwards? If so this would definately be the problem since My rear brakes have no problems what-so-ever.

black00ssFL

iTrader: (24)

Talked to steve from sjm. He says that the mightyvac might be the problem and I should give the old two person bleeding method a shot. He also said that installing it bacwards WILL NOT damage the solenoid.

black00ssFL

iTrader: (24)

alright, just bled them again the old fasion way.....clean fluid, no air. Still having the same problems. Only thing left is the master cylinder.

griffr22

iTrader: (2)

Yeah sounds like master cylinder problem to me. There are two seals on the piston in the master cylinder that are supposed to hold the hydrolic pressure and the rear seal in probably blown so its not holding pressure and allowing fluid to to the back of the mc which is why there would be fluid between the mc and brake booster. They sell mc rebuild kits at napa and other part stores. You can try that if the piston isnt in bad shape and save some money rather then buying a whole new mc

black00ssFL

iTrader: (24)

Well I did find the problem and it wasn't the MC thank god. There was just a small leak on the fitting for the front brakes on the MC. It would just run down the MC to the rear and then down the Power booster, making it look like it was leaking from the MC. Got that fixed so far and she's holding pressure fine now. Just needs to be bled again after driving it for a little bit.

DTB_LS1

iTrader: (2)

Yeah you have to make sure the brakes are bled well. After I installed my SJM I had the same soft pedal and LL not holding. My problem ended up being air in the lines to and from the proportioning block or whatever GM calls it. You could actually hear the air in the lines when you got close.

speed_demon24

iTrader: (6)

Did you bleed the back brakes too? If you ran the Master cylinder dry you might have some air in the back lines.