rebuilt brakes break in time/behavior
 

ok, over the weekend i rebuilt my front brakes only; i pulled my calipers off, bead blasted them, painted them, then rebuilt them. then i took the rotors off, cleaned and scratched them, and new pads were put in. when i bled the brakes, i did the fronts, then i bled the rears, then i bled the fronts again.

my question is, how long will breaking them in take, and what will they act like until they are? i ask because they feel spongier than before and dont grip that well; though i am being really easy on them for a while till they are broken in. are they supposed to feel like this at first or did i do something wrong? im probably going to bleed them again, especially if they dont get better.

To me the non-ABS breaks do feel a bit spongy, but they grab solidly and don't give out... but require a bit of pedal effort.

Did you bleed starting with the calilper furthest away from the Master Cylinder and work you way up to the closest? Did you bleed both nipples on the rear calipers?

I went through like 2 bottles before I could get all the air out, and I didin't just "bleed into a bucket" like some people do.

You might also switch to a "suck it out" vacuume tester/bleeder. You do need to pump/bleed with the brake pedal a few times before using the sucker hand-pump.

Oh and don't use the ebrake while your bleeding, use some tire chauks (sp??)

i bled the fronts first cuz they completely full of air, i took the calipers off on sat and left the hoses hanging and dripping overnight. then i bled the rear right, then left, then the fronts, forget wich order though. i only bled the rears from one nipple as per the fsm instructions. that and i didn't even change the pads or anything so i wasn't too worried about the rears. i also did have the ebrake on when i did them, didn't want my car to roll away without front wheels

Look in the FSM...there is a specific order in which to bleed the brakes properly.

Proper order is:

Right Rear
Left Rear
Right Front
Left Front

On page 11-9 of the FSM for years 86-88

If the pedal is still spongy, re-bleed. Sounds like there is still some air in the lines.

Also, www.stoptech.com has more information than you ever wanted on brake bedding/brake bleeding/general brake technology.

-=Russ=-