Well, it's finally done. I have brakes again! My like-new rebuilt master
cylinder came back from Apple last week and I got to reassemble everything
over the weekend.
The new master cylinder seems to have fixed the excessive pedal travel
problem. Why? I dunno. I never had the "pedal slowly sinking to the
firewall - must be the mc" symptom, just excess pedal travel before firm
pedal without pumping.
At this point I really don't care why the new mc works, I'm just happy that
it does. As some may recall, before going for the mc rebuild I replaced all
wheel and mc seals, front pads, rotors, and wheel bearings, pressurized the
system (found no leaks), adjusted the rear drum brakes, and bled several
bottles of brake fluid through the lines. I also replaced the 10 year old
brake hoses (which didn't look bad). I think my brakes should be good for a
while now and I learned a lot in the process.
I found a nice wheel to replace the bagel shaped one, finished the wheel
stripping/painting job, got the tires on, balanced, and back on the A. Seems
like it's been on jack stands forever and it awfully nice to have it back on
the ground. Now if only the snow, ice, and salt stuff ever stops here I'll
get out of the garage and see if the brakes actually work!
FWIW, I bought one of the Mityvac vacuum type bleeding tools and it worked
quite well. The only problem I've had is that it sucks air through the
threads of the bleeders so that it can be hard to tell if you're pulling air
from the brake lines or from around the bleeder. I coated the outer/upper
half of the bleeder threads with grease to seal them and then it worked fine.
Thanks to all for the help and advice on this project.
Keith Baer
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