*PLEASE HELP* with my brakes on my chevelle

[souljaboy9768]

I have a 69 chevelle that I purchased an original owner had a power booster with a 1" wilwood master cylinder tandeum style.

rear brakes on chevelle are stock drum with a 12 bolt.

i purchased from right stuff their stainless steel brake line kit and had a local shop install. I got the car back amd pedal is worst than before I'm having to go all the way to the floor board.

I crawled led under the car and found a few places leaking from the bleeder screws up front both sides and also on the rear brake hose.

i just order new brake pads, braided hoses, and new bleeders waiting for them to come in.

questions I have are

1. Is the proporting valve ok to use or should I upgrade to an adjustable proportioning valve?
2. What's best way to bleed master cylinder? (Is it possible to leave it connected to power booster and with two people bleed it with a kit?
3. Bleeding the wilwood D52 there's two bleeders on each caliper? Does it matter the order? Do I bleed from both?
4. Should I try and re-use the new lines that leak? Should I buy new ones? (What's best option)

im doing the work myself this time and look forward to starting a thread with what I find and from all your help.

thanks

[souljaboy9768]

8627186272

Couple more pics of chevelle

The brake booster is connected to back of intake, is that a good spot or only spot?

Should I go to a manual setup? I always have a hard time adding fluid cause the master cylinder is in an angle

[1966longroof]

Are you still on Active Duty???

[souljaboy9768]

I'm done with my contract, spending time with my little girls theses days along with trying to fix these brakes

[Motorcitydak]

If you ordered the SS lines, use em in place of those rubber ones but they do not appear to be your problem. Looks like the fittings. In the pic of the caliper, is that leak from the line fitting (banjo fitting) or the bleeder? Do not use that bleeder that is clear to see in that pic, it is at the bottom. I assume that is only there so the company can sell 1 part and it will fit both drivers side and passenger side applications.

The 2nd pic I would first try to tighten that fitting. Is that a hard line coming in from the top left? If that does not work the flare on the steel line may be to blame. Either they did not do the correct degree flare, did not do a proper double flare or the material cracked when it was flared. If it is any of those issues, you will have to cut and re-flare the brake line.

2 For bleeding, I prefer a suction setup like this http://www.summitracing.com/parts/wmr-w89727/overview/
Not really a fan of pressure setup's or the ole pump the pedal and have someone else crack the bleeders

3 You only bleed the top bleeder and the bleeder needs to be the highest part of the caliper or else it will hold air in it giving you a terrible pedal

4 It depends on where the leak is but rubber lines will give slightly under pressure and I have seen them over time actually swell completely shut. SS is always better. You however do not absolutely need them but you may need new banjo fitting washers. Be sure to clean the mating surfaces on both the line and caliper then properly torque the banjo bolt

You would need something like this to do new flares on your hard lines depending on what angle you actually need. I would also get a brake line cutter, ensures a perfectly straight cut
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-900310/overview/

[DrivenProductions]

8627186272

Couple more pics of chevelle

The brake booster is connected to back of intake, is that a good spot or only spot?

Should I go to a manual setup? I always have a hard time adding fluid cause the master cylinder is in an angle
Sorry for being off topic , but what rims and tires are you running ? any side shots?
cheers Javi

[souljaboy9768]

86332 better pic of the rear hard line. It connects to the rear rubber brake hose the tees off to the wheel cylinders.

In the picture of the caliper it was leaking from top bleeder on both sides. I did however order new banjo fittings and washers. *whats the correct torque?*

That fitting on the hard line I tried tighting it but it still leaked. *45 degree flare is the correct way?

With the suction pump what order to bleed?

[Motorcitydak]

Banjo bolts should be about 15ft/lb but be careful because they can break off since they are hollow. Ideally tho you just need clean flat surfaces and undamaged crush washers for the fittings to work leak free. However it looks like the leak is only from the bleeders in which case I would work that out first.

That hard line looks new so it should not have cracked. I do wonder if the installer did not do a double flare

Here is a video on how to do a double flare

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fmF9mm3hsM

For the suction pump and any brake bleeding job you always start at the wheel furthest from the master cylinder. Suck out fluid until you get nice clean stuff coming out then close that one up and move on to the next. So you will start with the rear passenger side, then the rear drivers. Do the passenger front then lastly the drivers side front. Use a good quality brake fluid that is recommended for your system (DOT 4 or whatever the case may be). With that suction kit, I have had some bleeders work great but some times once you crack open the bleeder and draw vacuum air will get pulled in thru the threads (Don't worry you will know because you will hear a sucking noise and the vacuum gauge will drop pretty quickly) so I have put some grease around the threads to seal that up. You should be able to draw a pretty good vacuum with a few pumps and let it sit for a minute or so drawing out the old fluid and any air bubbles.

Since you had a local shop do the install, why are you not making them fix this since it seems like their mistake?

[souljaboy9768]

the shop did a poor job hate to take it back and see what happens next. I work full time as a paramedic and a second job in between. I hardly have time to do anything that's why I paid the shop to do it. There refunding my money in full.

All the lines were brand new from right stuff. All new stainless steel lines

Just don't trust the shop anymore.

[Motorcitydak]

No kiddin! We are in the same boat, paramedic (24 hour shifts) with a side job, been at it 7 years now and just picked up a side job to get some more progress on the car

Ok well that may make some sense, your hard line is SS? If so it is much harder than regular steel line and difficult to put a flare on with regular tools, you need $$ hydraulic ones. That may explain why you have that leak to the soft line.

[souljaboy9768]

Same here I work 24/48 and do part time with a private ambulance company.

What do you think I should? Should I order some factory lines for $100 and get rid of the stainless steel hard line?

[souljaboy9768]

When I order the lines everything was pre bent and flared already and came with rubber hoses for the front calipers and rear brake hose

[Motorcitydak]

I have heard nothing but good things about this stuff and is what I plan on using on my car. Very easy to bend/flare/work with and rust proof

http://www.jegs.com/p/JEGS-Performance-Products/JEGS-NiCopp-Nickel-Copper-Brake-Lines/2111534/10002/-1

However since you had the lines brand new and with flares on them already they should be done properly

I would check that the fitting (from that hard line to the soft) is tight. If it is then take that fitting back apart and take a look at the flare, look for cracks or if the flare is not perfectly round. If they do not look right then I would get ahold of the vendor that sold you the lines and get a new line on the way

I would not spend another dime trying to fix this. You bought parts brand new and should expect them to fit properly and not leak

[souljaboy9768]

True I never thought about that, I'll have to call them tomorrow and let them know. I'll get back on her and let you know what they said

Thanks for the advice

[Motorcitydak]

Cool, good luck and let us know how it goes

[1966longroof]

I'm done with my contract, spending time with my little girls theses days along with trying to fix these brakes

Was going to say.....if you were still on active duty.....use your local Hobby Shop. They usually have the personnel that can help guide you, and the correct tools to do the job.
When you bleed the brakes. You only need to touch the top bleeders.

[souljaboy9768]

Thanks, hobby shops are awesome! I got a hold of the place I bought brake lines and told them about the leaks. They sad they would send me a new complete set or front to rear lines at most cost and I ahold have them here in a few days.

Wilwood calipers and master cylinder. I'm thinking about send to wilwood and they said $25 per product they would inspect them.

On calipers they said the cost to machine surfaces on pistons and replaced rings was included in the $25 service charge.

[Motorcitydak]

So how did this turn out?