• Hello Guest, welcome to the initial stages of our new platform!
    You can find some additional information about where we are in the process of migrating the board and setting up our new software here

    Thank you for being a part of our community!

Vintage 122 Brakes can't firm up the pedal...

RR

Member
Joined
May 15, 2003
Location
Northern CA
Ok, so I replaced the rotors, cleaned them off; new calipers and pads, hard lines in and now we are bleeding them manually.

We cannot, however get the brake pedal to firm up. After plenty of bleeding, we still get half of the total travel, and that doesn't seem right. This is at rest, btw.

So where would you turn next to shore the brakes up? I will end up replacing most of the old parts anyway...

What would be the next culprit in firming up these brakes?

Thanks in advance, Rick
 
Did you replace the flex hoses?

Are the rear brakes adjusted properly?

This may sound dumb but did you put the calipers on upside down? I only ask because there have been 2 threads recently where a soft pedal was caused by this. The bleeder should be at the top of the caliper.
 
Calipers on correctly...

Did not replace the rubber lines, though now I know I should have...nor did I bleed the rear brake drums. I suspect this combo of errors are the culprit.

I have an Amazon expert droppong by on Wednesday, and I bet he'll straighten me out.

Thanks, RR


Did you replace the flex hoses?

Are the rear brakes adjusted properly?

This may sound dumb but did you put the calipers on upside down? I only ask because there have been 2 threads recently where a soft pedal was caused by this. The bleeder should be at the top of the caliper.
 
Start at the passenger rear until you see nothing but clean, new brake fluid. Then driver's rear, then passenger front and finally driver front. Make sure the car's level while you're doing all this.

Replacing all the lines will help, and since you're doing this much: at the very least check your wheel cylinders in the rear to make sure they're not leaking.
 
I had a problem with the caliper pistons pulling back to far on a 1800ES, half pedal at best. On trick that I used was to press the pedal down hard as you can, lock it with a stick and walk away for 24 hours.
 
We figured it out...

The next day after trying to bleed and firm up brakes; there was no fluid in the master cylinder at all...it all leaked out of both front brake hard line fittings.

So after fiddling a bit, realized that the hard line was not sealing up to the caliper at all.

My buddy gonna remake those lines, and we will try again.

Thanks again, RR


Ok, so I replaced the rotors, cleaned them off; new calipers and pads, hard lines in and now we are bleeding them manually.

We cannot, however get the brake pedal to firm up. After plenty of bleeding, we still get half of the total travel, and that doesn't seem right. This is at rest, btw.

So where would you turn next to shore the brakes up? I will end up replacing most of the old parts anyway...

What would be the next culprit in firming up these brakes?

Thanks in advance, Rick
 
FYI, the brake pipe to each caliper has 2 different fittings and flares on each end.

New reproduction caliper brake lines are available, but you have to complete 1 of the bends and you have to be careful not to kink the brake line and I do have the repros in stock.

A 1966 Volvo 122 will have a bubble flare with a 3/8" 24tpi bubble flare male tube nut that goes into the caliper while the other end that connects to the brake hose will have a inverted flare and a 3/8" 24tpi inverted flare female tube nut. Pre-1966 122 have a inverted flare male tube nut for the brake hose connection.

The bubble flare tool we have doesn't make nice bubble flares, but we can make very nice inverted flares.

So before the repros were available, I would buy a pre-made bubble flare brake line with the correct male tube nuts from NAPA. With that line I can make both brake lines by cutting it in half and then down to the correct length and then making the inverted flares myself.
 
Back
Top