brakes;;;

have M/W brakes on my altered..having a fit with them..got them to bleed finnally..today i was going over everything and checking things because i'm plaining on making my first pass on car April 26th;;on brakes i had about 2 to 4" travel before lock up..when i pressed peddel today i had roughly 7 to 8" travel..had brother come over with his vacume pump and try to bleed brakes and they ended up worse;;as he was bleeding he said he noticed that the bottom bleeder he thought he could feel little air from it when i depressed pedel;;checked make sure it was tight,,was tight..then he thought he noticed it driped once or twice but wasn't 100* sure on that.maybe running down from top bleeder..anyway..could never get pedel using pump so we went back to OLD school way;;pump/open bleeder/close/release pedel;;we finnally got pedel out of brakes..I thought and felt LIKE to much travel [went half way down]so lengthen rod from pedel to MC..got brakes up to 3 to 4" travel..felt good there so we pushed car down driveway and hit pedel hard and felt good..tried again to be sure all good and that time pedel slamed to floor..looked under rear and the bottom bleeder was spraying fluid out of it big time..

now you/ve read my book what can i do..most likely won't find new bleeders in this town;;can i get rid of the bottom bleeders by plugs;;?are they pipe theards? and next thing what is best way to adjust the rod from PEDEL to to MC?

 

brakes

bleed only the top screw both sides furthest away first the bottom bleeder is if you change sides on the caliper--use only the top on both sides--make sure to keep the resevoir full

 

Make sure to have a residual valve in the rear brake line for sure with the large volume in the calipers....I have 2 lb in both front and rear lines for a solid pedal (handle in my case)....they are 1/8 NPT and screw into the brake master cylinder....

 

brakes

If your resevoir is higher than your bleaders than you should not need a residual valve

 

gap me

the easiest way to see if the pads are sucking in is to take the tires off, pump the brakes and see when they are not on if a air gap appears between the pad and rotor. if its a big gap, there is the answer, a residual is needed to keep the pads out. we tried back to back trial and error on this, and a 2 lb residual makes a huge difference. there are only a few logical reasons why brakes adjustment go away, and with a new, untested system it has to be set up correctly in the first place. your first stroke will tell you if it is letting the pads get sucked in too far after sitting. either you have the wrong bleeders, or worn ones, just call whoever made the calipers and get some now. the rod to the master has to be made so it can not not not fall out if the master sticks or adjustment is lost, that way you wont crash, and have some pedal. the master only works correctly if no preload is put on it. meaning the rod hits the master and you crank it into it trying to make it better. if you have to do this , you probably have a bad master or the wrong size one on it. it has to return to base open before it will let all the pressure from the lines go into the reservoir. definitely check all the lines and joints after the first few passes to see if they leak or seap. that's when they will most likely. use the chutes to take most of the speed off, then use the brakes, not the other way. good luck and make sure you check the end of the track before you run to plan a exit just in case things go wrong. you should do this at every track. dan

 

Never more true words spoken. If i haven't been to a track in a while, i go for a ride in the golf cart to see what new hazards are in the sand trap. Always nice to have a game plan before SHTF.

 

very good ideal;;thanks for very much for this advice..me being new i wouldn't have thought of this at all;got brakes now;;headed up replacing all bleeders and put teglon on theards to help from sucking air from around theards while bleeding brakes..I CAN NOW STOP;;THAT'S A GOOD THING;;LOL;