Bleeding brakes?

[Houdini]

i am still running my lines through the distribution block and no issue for me. i will say....when bleeding my brakes i can easily go through a couple of quarts before they even start to get firm. i usually use a mighty vac to get them tight and then the old fashioned way to get them totally firmed up.

i too question why you went to another nissan MC. i mean...regardless of the piston size on the new calipers, it'd be a good move to get a MC that moves more fluid and for $50....you can't beat it.

take the calipers off....hold them up as high as the lines will allow and let the air rise up to the top of the calipers and mighty vac them from that location. maybe that'll help remove any air stuck in any little areas of the brake lines.

additionally, are you absolutely sure you are not leaking fluid from any of the lines and that the thread size on the new lines is a spot on match to the hard line and caliper? some of the metric and standard sizes are very close to the same size, but minute differences create leaks. maybe just enough of a leak to loose pressure and weaken the pedal.

bleed the rear brakes again and then move the front and bleed them till you really really think you have done it enough...then have a beer and a smoke....then go bleed them for another 30 minutes. small piston on those brakes and small nissan mc means you are moving fluid slowly through the entire system. i think it took me ~2hrs to completely bleed my front brakes this past spring with a mighty vac. it's a tedious process.

and are you sure you are bleeding them correctly? i don't mean to insult your smarts, but never hurts to know you have the process down correctly.

once again, good luck!

[Bobby B.]

Fletch, FWIW, maybe try one of these for bleeding the brakes:

http://store.motiveproducts.com/roun...-0101-p60.aspx

It works way better than anything else I've tried, including those Mityvac pumps, which I always had leak on me when using for brakes. The Mityvacs are better for tracking out vacuum leaks, vacuum advance units, etc.

I've used the Motive bleeder on our trucks -- both SASed and not -- and it was easy, fast and effective. No affiliation, but it's cheap and you can flush the system by yourself in no time. Plus, if you're like me, buying tools is a good thing.

I've also seen people make their own version that they can pressurize with shop air, and this does the same thing.

With the brake fluid pressurized, this frees up one hand to use a hard mallet or ball pein hammer to rap the caliper while you open and close the bleeder valve with the other.

Even so, the pedal will be mushier than it was when stock. No real getting around that until you bump the MC to one designed to push more volume.

Hope this helps.

[cuong nguyen]

I run speed bleeders on the dana 44 calipers on mine with no problems. i was going to suggest that you pinch the rear main brake line and diagnose what end is giving you problems. People run different lifts and change casters so that affects the orientation of the bleeder screw.

Is the bleeder screw directly at the highest point of the caliper? if it isn't air is going to still be trapped and you won't get it out.

Not familiar with the X's setup or Frontiers, but I know on the WD21s, you're suppose to bleed the abs proportioning/load sensing valve first, then farthest brake and so forth.

I just bought myself the 300zx Brake MC which is a 1 1/16th bore compared to the 1" stocker.
http://nissannut.com/projects/SAS_brakes/

[itsme1738]

i hate to say this but here it is,i sased an 88 pathy,had both axles out and used a harbor freight hand vacum bleeder and it worked great!....i can lock up all 4 tires
just my 2 cents

[Fletch]

Bobby --

Thanks for the tip on that Motive bleeder -- Picked up one last week, and WOW -- That thing works awesome! Definitely got all the air out of the lines, and the brakes work pretty damn good now... For the record,guys, I found out that the rear slave cylinders were both leaking ever so slightly... Peeled back the dust boos and found flluid. So I replaced both of those, bled the system, and was good to go!

Things are still a little soft for my liking, however, , so I think I'm going to step up to the 300ZX M/C that you are running Cuong, instead fo the Wilwood... I want to make as few modifications as poossible, so a couple questions -- Other than the new lines to the ABS block, are there any other modifications that need to be made? I'm assuming the bolt holes line up exactly with the booster? Also, does the low brake fluid sensor wire connect up to the resevoir? Or can the stock Xterra resevoir be retrofitted to the 300 ZX master? I want this thing to be as close to OEM as possible...

[Houdini]

Glad you got the brakes to feel a little better.

[Fletch]

Update:

So I took Cuong / Nissan Nut's advice and stepped up to a 1 1/16" bore MC from a 300ZX, but I was a little bummed when I got it to find out that the low fluid switch connecter was different, and that my new Motive Bleeder cap adapter wouldn't fit the old style 300 ZX cap.

On a hunch, I ordered a MC resevoir from a Titan, and bingo! The Titan resevoir fits the 300 ZX MC, accepts the newer style low fluid switch, and will work with the three prong adapter on my Motive Bleeder!

I'm really stoked now, because I now have a completely bolt-on setup where the only modification needed will be a new bracket for the throttle cable. (The 300ZX MC doesn't have provisions to bolt up the throttle stock Xterra cable bracket)

I would suspect that a complete Titan MC would bolt up to the Xterra booster as well, however, the Titan MC has some strange check valves built into it that may cause the brakes to act funny.

For reference, the part number to the Titan MC resevoir is 46091-7S000. It costs about $15 from courtesyparts.com


300ZX resevoir. Notice that the low fluid switch connector is much larger than the stock Xterra connector, and the cap is larger. Motive does not make a cap that fits this resevoir:



Titan resevoir mounted to 300ZX MC. Accepts the stock Xterra low fluid switch, and even has some room on top to route the hard lines to the ABS block:




Now I just have to bend some hard lines, get this thing mounted, and I should be stopping better than stock!

[Bobby B.]

Interesting. So that MC has three ports, and they are on the opposite side than stock?

If so, how do you negate the third port?

[penski61]

weird , the low fluid switch plugged right into the dodge MC

[Fletch]

Originally Posted by Bobby B.

Interesting. So that MC has three ports, and they are on the opposite side than stock?

If so, how do you negate the third port?

If you look closely, you'll notice the middle port already has a plug in it. If you check out the link that Cuong posted to Nissan Nut's website, it talks more about it in detail. The third port is only used if you have two separate hard lines to each front wheel.

And yes, they are on the opposite side as stock. Hence the need for new hard lines.