Yesterday, I replaced both front calipers/rotors/pads and one brake line. I attempted to vacuum bleed the system this morning (twice), but still had a soft pedal, so I decided to just take the easy way out and have someone else bleed the brakes. The shop closest to me (Monro) also bled twice, but still a [very] soft pedal, and now the failure light is on too! Also, when braking, the car pulls to the right. ACK!

I need to drive this car from CT to Pittsburgh on Saturday -- I don't need this right now! Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
erik

Well, it turned out to be the rear(!) caliper and air in the system even after many attempts at bleeding. Why? The left rear caliper was actaully a right side one mounted upside down. I should've jumped on that right away, but when I did the rear rotors a year or so ago, they bled fine. Oh well -- a new junkyard caliper, one more bleed, and all is well.
Thanks for the help!

-erik

Ron's comment about putting the front calipers on the wrong side reminded me of similar problem — one I've seen on aftermarket replacements (twice). This may seem pretty far out, but it happens...

This is when rebuilt calipers are reassembled wrong. Girling puts a "dimple" on each caliper half, at the top ,on each side of the mating joint.

It''s possible, for example, to assemble a Left outer half to an inverted Right inner half, and it will look fine. But be impossible to bleed properly.

The tip off isn't obvious, but the match-up dimples won't be side-by-side on the same end of the caliper. One dimple will be on top of one half, the other on the bottom of the other half.

I have two of these in my garage right now. They came from a junker, but were nearly new-looking, so I grabbed them. Now I'm stuck with them.

--
Bruce Young,
'93 940-NA (current)
'80 GLE V8 (Sold 5/03)
'83 Turbo 245
'76 244 (lasted only 255,000 miles)
73 142 (98K)
'71 144 (track modified--crusher bound)
New 144 from '67 to '78
Used '62 122 from '63 to '67

Hmmmm. I'll check that. I knew that, but hadn't thought about it since these new-looking calipers came off a junker too. Maybe there was a reason that it had its front end smashed...

-e

It's not uncommon to have serious troubles when bleeding 240 brakes. It's a complex system and quite sensitive to having the switch stick in one position or the other. From the pic in the other post you can see what turns on the light- imbalance in the 2 sides of the system.
One really important thing to check is, are the calipers on the right sides? The sounds obvious, but the bleed screws ought to point UP. If they're down, or one side is down, then they got swapped. They will INSTALL fine eitehr way, and you'll think it's right- but then the brakes are impossible to bleed as the air cannot fully escape the system.
Also, it's important to follow the complete bleeding instructions in the right order. It's not like a normal car because there are 6 bleed screws.
It is also possible that there's a master cylinder failure, and nothing is going to correct that save a new MC.
Vacuum bleeding is also a potential source of trouble- the cars tend to respond much better to pressure bleeding. If you can't find one right where you are, FCP Groton has the right pressure bleeder in stock, for $45 and you can do that yourself as a one-man job.
Unfortunately, also it could be in the switch/junction block, and with 8 brake lines going to that little ******* it gets real ugly. Or at least tedious and very messy. One other thing- if all the fluid ran out, and it probably did, it may be best to "bench bleed" the master cylinder to ensure that ALL air is out of it, before trying to bleed the calipers.
What I did was buy 2- 1-ft lengths of steel brake line from FCP Groton (about $2.50 each) and bend them so they point right back into the MC reservoir, fill the reservoir and pump until all air bubbles are gone from the fluid. Took 5 minutes to bend the lines and 5 minutes to bleed the MC on the car- this was whne installing a new MC last month on a 1988 240.
Good luck!!
--
Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 221K, 88 744GLE- 202K, 91 244 181K, 88 244GL 145K

Thanks for the reply.

I talked to a semi-local volvo "specialist" and he said the same thing about bleeding. I'll take it there tomorrow for him to pressure bleed. Hopefully that'll do it.

It is very interesting, what you say about the calipers. The fronts (that I just did) are right, but I noticed in the rear that one caliper had a bleed screw on the bottom (not on top). I thought this was odd, but it has been like this for at least as long as I've had the car. Could this be the problem? Is it possible to turn it around to bleed and then reinstall upside-down?

thanks again,
erik

Did you bleed all four wheels, or just the front?

Do you play the trombone?

All four (as did the shop). One thing to clear up -- the failure light will go on when pushing the brakes and stay on until the next time I hit the pedal. Then it goes off.

And yes, I *do* play trombone -- maybe I should stick to that and leave the auto work to someone else (although on a trombonist's salary, I can't afford to do that...)

-erik

Sorry, no immediate help here. Just posted in case someone says your warning switch needs to be "reset". As the picture shows, it is self-centering. Or should be, Sometimes it gets stuck to one side from the imbalance that can occur during bleeding. Usually resets itself after a while.

Your 1st post mentioned "vacuum bleeding". I tried that with a Mity-Vac just one time. Can't get a clear (bubble-free) bleed due to air being sucked in around bleeder threads.

Now I use the MV as a Pressure Bleeder—Hose from MV pressure port to adapter in spare Master Cylinder cap, with a pressure gauge tapped into the hose. Fill the MC, pump up about 15# and go at it. Only takes about 3 MC refills to do all 4 brakes.
--
Bruce Young,
'93 940-NA (current)
'80 GLE V8 (Sold 5/03)
'83 Turbo 245
'76 244 (lasted only 255,000 miles)
73 142 (98K)
'71 144 (track modified--crusher bound)
New 144 from '67 to '78
Used '62 122 from '63 to '67