Oldsinner111,

What exactly are " hard to bleed brakes " ?

And what is ' this procedure' you are referring to ?

Read you loud and clear.... I'll go get that life insurance policy......


~Brian

Please send picture before I am required to commit...
How well have you trained her ?
Does she know anything about turning wrenches herself ? That would be a big plus...

She's 27 and has 273k miles on her, kinda high mileage but she's aging well, great body, dark skin. Keep up with maintenance though and she'll treat you like a king.

Seriously though, my girlfriend canned me about 24 hours after I bought this car, last month. Coincidence? I dunno, but now I have a new love in my life... she just needs a name.

I went to order a master cylinder from allpartsexpress here, and when I clicked on the right MC, it added an MC for a w123. So I go back and try again, added the correct product.

Also, there's 2 MCs for the 300SD listed, and "to XXXXXX" and "from XXXXXX" qualifiers in the item description. I'm guessing these are the last 6 digits in the VIN, correct? But only one of them says turbo in the description. Do I go by the VIN info, or the description? Like I said, they both came up as MCs for my car.

Clarification would be greatly appreciated. I'm placing a sizeable order as I'm already reaping the benefits of this forum and would like to support it.

~Brian

Call and talk to PHIL and /or ROY HUNTER.. at Fastlane....top of page...
they will have the correct answers....
we can only give entertaining answers at some points of specificity.... LOL

They are both for turbo cars as all SD's were turbo. Go by the Vin #'s and you should be fine. Yours should be the earlier one.

__________________
81 300SD daily driver/project
86 420SEL (sold)
85 380SE(in the graveyard)

Yes, that " should " be correct.. but I think the phone call to confirm would be free...

Already called Phil and got the right part at the right price. Waiting patiently for all of these parts to arrive.

That quote about what is being rich vs. wealthy. What is it when you've got the time and the money but not the parts? Tortured??

~Brian

Developing Character ?

More like developing money pit... I'm slowly getting reluctant to look at the car cause I find more problems each time. I found 3 stripped lugs on my rear wheels, and the rotors definitely need to go (out of sight, out of mind), while trying to adjust my e-brake. Time to use my brothers new tap set. I'll basically be doing a brake system overhaul minus the booster, calipers, and hard lines. I think my E-brake is missing the adjusting star bolt, cause I can't find it on either side, even with the wheel off. Next time I'll take the caliper and rotor off to see what the deal is.

The upside is that with that new 5th glow plug she starts up pretty easy now @ 20F, and she hardly smokes, so I think, I hope, compression and injectors are in good shape. Transmission on the other hand, I've got at least one cracked axle boot, and a soggy differential leak. The body is in pretty good shape, but I need to catch some small rust spots before they get worse.

Now I'm just typing out loud...

This car is certainly an education.

~Brian

Replaced the MC, woohooo!! That went pretty smooth for my first brake job like that. I bled the master cylinder by hand as much as I could and then installed it which seemed to make things go smoothly. Might still have a little air in the longer brake lines. Almost rounded off the hard to reach flange on one of the hard lines. How far in should the resevoir sit in the MC? It's not leaking, but it's also not flush to the bottom of the resevoir either. It's sitting level though.

Pedal feels great right now... I haven't tried it with the car on because I'm also in the middle of fixing the alternator (needs the right size belt(s), installed a new adjusting bolt) so no water pump either. Prior to replacing the MC and after bleeding the lines, the pedal would feel good with the car off, pump up ok, and then get soft with the car on. So, I'll just have to wait.

I'm now addressing a parallel (but not new) problem with my e-brake. It engages but not enough, and I can't for the life of me find the adjusting nut, even with the wheel off. How likely is it that they just aren't there? The rotors need to go anyways and I was going to take a look at what's going on with the e-brake while replacing them, but I think I might rip one off now and see if I should order it at the same time. I don't want to have to do the same work twice. Also, I found 3 stripped lugs on the rear wheels, so I'm going to try to heli-coil those, and maybe I won't have to replace the hubs quite yet, but again, if I'm in there doing work anyways, I might consider it.

I'm not brave or stupid enough (well, not anymore...) to test drive the brakes without an e-brake, hah!

Time to go shopping for parts.

I need to replace the vacuum pump gasket, which I'll try to do when I'm replacing the belts. Is there anything else I should do while I'm in there mucking about?

Thanks to anyone still reading!

~Brian

PS ~ despite the growing list of repairs, I'm really enjoying learning and working on this car!! wish it was Summer though so I could have daylength and weather on my side.

Bled the MC as much as you could by hand...
We need clarification on that...
Did you or did you not ' bench bleed' the MC ?
What do you mean you got all the air out you could..
You must get all the air out before test driving...
The principle is that fluid is not compressible... or expandable... ( fluid is compressible about one percent.. but we ignore that )...
If that air in there gets hot..and brake fluid does get hot... it could expand and lock up your brakes in a dangerous place.. or just lock up one brake.. or not activate the brakes.. and I have never actually seen an ' E-Brake' which was set and had the leverage to really stop a car ... most barely suffice for keeping the car from rolling off...

If you look closely, you might find that there is a "weep hole" near the base of the master cylinder. When the rear shaft seal fails, brake fluid will leak out of the hole and onto the front of the booster. The o-ring at the base of the master cylinder provides a pneumatic seal for the booster; it does not provides a seal for the brake fluid in the master cylinder.

Thanks for the clarification Tangofox007, I put that together when I was playing with the master cylinder today.

And to clarify myself, I bench bled the MC by hand as much as possible. I didn't have a good way to block the lines, but I kept the fluid above the reservoir minimum and kept it level while transporting it to the car.

I got all of the air out of the lines that I could, in the time that I had. I'm going to have someone help me bleed the lines again to be sure because I couldn't quite see if the rear lines were still bubbling or not, so I don't consider the bleeding done. I just wanted to get the bulk of it out of the way now. The front lines looked pretty good though. I won't neglect em the second time around either.

But you've gotta admit, even a somewhat working e-brake, combined with shifting to neutral or gearing down, would be better than nothing in an emergency. Either way, I'm not testing the brakes until the e-brake works, and I've bled the lines again.

leathermang, I appreciate you looking out for me. Brake work makes me nervous, which is why I've never done it, but I think I've got a pretty good grip on it thanks to everyone's help in the forums, and also a new respect for any brake trouble. I'm going to continue to overhaul the rest of the brake system as a safety measure. I can't afford it all at once so I was going to replace in this order: 1) brake hoses 2) hard lines 3) rotors and pads 4) calipers 5) booster (if needed). How does that sound? I might do the rotors & pads sooner rather than later. I suspect some rust in the hard lines, so I don't want to be pumping that into new calipers, and those are going to be the most expensive part. It can't be good for the MC either.

Remanufactured calipers any good, or should I just give you my insurance policy number?

~Brian

I had to go to three different places to find a METRIC Bench bleeding kit for my recent Honda MC replacement... I once made the mistake of not believing that a MC needed to be bench bled even though the instructions were very specific... they said ' bench bleed before installing' .... so I had to take it back off even though I tried to bleed it by holding my fingers on the exixt holes and not letting the level get low... that was about 35 years ago... I have learned some things since then..... The metric bleeder kit was only about $5 from Napa... it is just a bunch of metric nipples ( so two will fit is the idea) and a couple of lines that fit on them which will reach back up to the brake fluid reservoir .... works great and fast... you do not want any air inside your working parts in the MC...
I am afraid I can not abide by words like " somewhat working"..." as much as I could" when dealing with BRAKES....
I suggest you find someone to either watch and supervise you or do your brakes the first time and you watch... On brakes I regularly tell first timers this... it is not a reflection on my impression of your ability to mechanic.... I just remember doing some things wrong myself the first times I tried it...
Replacing forum members is above our pay scale... not too worried about the car.. we can find replacements for those...