Hello everyone,

I changed out the pads and rotors on all 4 wheels. I replaced the front driver's side caliper with a remanufactured unit from A1Cardone. I replaced the four rubber brake hoses on the front, and 2 copper brake lines from the hose to the caliper on the passenger's side front. The lines came flared with fittings and cut to the right length, but had to bend them. They are Scan Tech. I have flushed about 1.3 liters of brake fluid through the system, bleeding the brakes in the order outlined in the manual. I saw no air bubbles coming out of the bleeder screws (I had attached a clear plastic hose to the bleeder nipple so that I could see what was coming out). My bleed method was the old fashioned one: open bleeder screw - helper presses brake pedal - close bleeder screw - helper releases pedal - repeat until fluid has no bubbles. I also let the brakes gravity bleed for a while too.

After doing all of this, I got in the car to pump the pedal until firm. The problem is, I can build pressure in the system with lots of pumps, but if I hold my foot on the pedal with steady pressure, it slowly sinks to the floor. I really don't understand what could have gone wrong. Could I have damaged the master cylinder during the bleed procedure by pressing the pedal too far? Is there still hidden air trapped inside the system?

Here are some additional facts that may help you brake gurus figure out the problem:

1. To break loose one of the line-hose fittings, I needed to use a propane torch to heat up the connection. It worked well, but the rubber part of the hose melted shut, allowing gas pressure to build until the rubber part of the hose actually blew out of the metal end - this made a loud explosion sound. Could this have somehow damaged the master cylinder or junction box? Is the junction box pretty robust? I would loathe replacing that, with so many line connections.

2. All of the fluid ended up draining out of the reservoir during this project through the open front brake lines. So air was present at one point in the master cylinder, and probably the juction box as well. Will this make it impossible to get all of the air out through the normal bleed method? Do I need to bench bleed the MC? I wouldn't think it would be a problem since neither haynes nor bentley says that bench bleeding is necessary when replacing the MC, but people have discussed it on this board, so maybe this is my problem.

I am really at a loss regarding what has already been an extremely frustrating project - Murphy's Law has ruled with an iron fist. Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

John - '86 245, 150K