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Not asking a question here; relaying a personal experience instead. Bled the brakes for the first time myself on the 380SL. I typically do one circuit at a time and check after each caliper. (I use a Mityvac vacuum tool.) Drained master cylinder res, refilled, went to first wheel (psgr rear) bled it, closed up, went to check pedal feel -- overtravel. Spongy as hell. Arrrrgh! How did I get all that air in there? I blamed the Mityvac and futzed with it until it was too late to futz. Today, I checked the shop forum for leads. Instantly found a note to the effect that there are two sections inside of the master cylinder reservoir, that interconnect at the top with a tiny pinhole. Filling section 1 doesn't get fluid into section 2 unless 1 is all the way to the top, according to those posts. Checked this car. Yep. Empty section 2. Filled to the top. Section 2 filled up once I did that. Rebled. Firm brakes. Two observations: (a) boy, you guys rock. I would have probably had to have the SL towed to a shop if I hadn't found that note. (b) What are MBZ engineers smoking in their off hours? Dumbest M/C reservoir design I have ever seen. And potentially dangerous. Safety critical systems should not include stupid pet tricks. Obviousness, please! I hope I haven't torn up the M/C seals with the pedal overtravel. No way to tell until it fails on me. At least this way I can hopefully have someone else learn from my experience. Ron H -- |
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