OK we have brakes!

When last I left you, I had bypassed the rear line portion of the brake porportioning valve. I want to note here I had very good fluid flow at this point, almost emptied 1/2 the resivor in the time it took to connect two lines to the union fitting. Bypassing the valve made no difference but I thought maybe I had air in the lines. Yesterday I put the rear on jack stands and pulled the rear tires (makes it easier to reach the bleader screws.) I opened the bleeder screw on the driver side rear cylinder to allow it to gravity bleed.

For those of you that may not know what gravity bleed is, on cars (or trucks) where the master is higher then the wheel cylinders, you can open the bleeder screws and gravity will draw all the air out of the lines, you leave the screws open until the fluid is flowing without air boubles, then close the bleeders. This works best by opening one bleeder at a time, per axle. Start with the bleader closest to the master. When the fluid flows air free, close that bleader and open the other bleeder screw on the same axle. Be sure to watch the fluid level in the master as it can empty very quickly and if the master goes empty you have to start all over. You can do one bleeder from the front and one from the rear at the same time or you can do just one at a time. It is a very effecent way of bleeding the brakes, but can be somewhat slow.

Back to the story. After opening the bleeder and leaving it open for 1/2 hour, I had very little fluid! Should have almost emptied the master in a 1/2 hour. I made sure the bleeder screw was not pluged, it wasn't. So I closed the bleeder and moved forward to the brake line connection on the master side of the rear brake hose and seperated the connection. Great fluid flow, closed it back up. Went to the axle end of the brake hose and disconnected the line going towards the wheel cylinder that I had very little fluid flow from. Got great fluid flow from the hose! Disconnected the other end of the line from the wheel cylinder. The fitting was tight, but the line fell off after only a turn or two! Sure enough, the last two threads were almost stripped off the line fitting! Must have been cross threaded. At this point, I'm not taking a chance on the wheel cylinder. I pulled off the brake drum and the shoes were soaked with what I first thought was gear lube! Didn't smell like gear lube, and there were no tell tail signs the axle seal was ever leaking. Called my favorite auto parts house and ordered a new brake line, wheel cylinder and new shoes. One of the perks with owning your own shop is the parts store deliveres the parts. After cleaning everything up I reinstalled the new brake line and wheel cylinder (making sure it it NOT crossthreaded) I opened the bleeder screw while I reinstalled the brake shoes. As I am finishing up the shoe installation, I noticed brake fluid running inside the backing plate. Closed the bleeder screw and the fluid flow stopped. This is where I add that I have gravity blead many brake sysyems and have never encountered brake fluid on the inside of a backing plate! Now I knew what was likely on brake shoes. So I checked the other side and sure enough, those shoes were wet also, not as bad as the first side, but wet none the less. I replaced those shoes and cleaned everything up (on both sides), and buttoned it back up. The threads on the inside of the wheel cylinder were rusty (this was a new wheel cylinder last year) so I suspect it has been leaking all along, but just wasn't leaking enough to show up on the outside or in fluid loss.

Today I drove the car, its nice to have 4 wheel brakes! The car stops very good. I still think the pedal effort is still a little high, so some more modification of the brake pedal is on the horizon. I have extended the length of the brake pedal about 2" and may go another inch. Once I get something I like, I will pull the pedal assembly and make a perminate alteration.

So the bottom line to all this was a cross threaded fitting at the wheel cylinder, and the wrong brake pedal ratio. After a year of putting up with poor brakes, boy, do I feel dumb. Gene