Success!!!!!!!

 

I'm glad you achieved the success you worked so hard to get.
There is something that is not quite right , at least in my mind.
Whenever I went to bleed a brake system without a pressure bleeder, this is what worked for me.
I would have the person in the vehicle pump the pedal three times and I told them to hold it down until I said let it up. While they held it down I would open the bleeder fitting allow the air and fluid to come out and when it stopped I tightened the fitting then told the person to let it up , wait a few seconds then pump it again and hold it down , opened the bleeder and again when the air and fluid stopped I would close the fitting and repeat this sequence as many times as necessary until I saw no more air come out. Its not as elaborate as placing a tube on the fitting, but it always worked to rid the system of any air. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us.

 

What I did wasn't that elaborate. Just $0.50 of vinyl tubing and an empty coke plastic bottle. It was so if I got sloppy and didn't close the fitting tight or the other person let up too soon only fluid would go back into the valve. Also the bottle catches the fluid. I went through about 4.8 gallons.

Thanks for all your support.

 

If anybody stops to read all these posts they are going to get an education and hopefully enjoy them as much as I did. Thanks again !

 

but it takes longer. Fill master cyl. open all bleed screws & just let them drip drain. Just keep an eye on the brake fluid level. I have never tried this but I will one day soon. I saw this on one of the hot rod shows on TV.

 

Looking on the bright side, you certainly can assure anyone around that you've got the cleanest brake system around!

 

Just two notes. The wheel that took the most bleeding was the left rear. And it wouldn't "gravity bleed". If I just opened it, nothing flowed. I'm guessing an air pocket in the line was preventing flow.

Also. if anybody else has to build the ABS bypass contraption, you might want to keep the Brake Warning Light (red "Brake" light) working and the ABS light off (since you don't have one). It requires two jumper wires.

First, there is an ABS relay that needs to be "energized" by applying a ground to pin 2 of the connector that came off the ABS unit. That connector has the pins labled on the back side (where the wires come in). Its pins are female. Unfortunatly there is no ground in that connector. The ABS also has a two pin power connector. I cable tied the two connectors together and made a jumper of #18 solid wire. That size seems to be the same size as the pins in the ABS connector. To pick up the ground I crimped and soldered a spade lug onto the other end and clipped/filed it so that it would plug into the power connector ground socket. Use an ohmmeter to find which pin goes to ground.

To keep the Brake Warning light so that it comes on in Test mode when the key is in the start position and also when the brake fluid is low, jumper pins 4 and 7 of the ASB connector together with a piece of #18 wire.

Then I put the whole contraption in a plastic bag and wrapped it tightly to keep moisture out.

Pete

 

I had a soft/mushy brake, would be hard with motor off and eventually go to floor with engine running. I found a forum on this problem and the cause is a contaminated abs valve or air trapped in the valve. Contamination is caused by depressing the calipers without opening the bleeder when replacing pads, this forces fluid back thru the valve and can contaminate it & cause it to stick. A fix to try is to (with all components connected) accelerate to 35 mph max and do several panic stops at this speed, if this does not work replace valve (about $400.00). If replacing valve follow factory directions to bleed system. ( hard to accomplish).

 

That was last year for me. I decided it was the ABS valve but I refuse to pay Ford to put their computer on the ABS to bleed it. So I built a bypass unit and removed the ABS. I did a lot of testing on snow and wet roads and I like the stopping better without the ABS.

For fun, do you have that link that described the "not open bleed valve" issue. I have never heard of it and the Ford shop manual doesn't say to do that.

Thanks,
Pete

 

I do not have the link to this post. It was posted by an older independent mechanic. I suspect the ford manual does not cover this as they can sell more $400 valves.