126/swaybars-booster-no brakes..advice please

[gidpor]

After talking to myself for a year about replacing the front sway bar bushings and reading countless posts for my 126/1987 Euro 300SE, I finally rolled up my sleeves this morning to do this universally regarded PITA job. The end result – I was not able to properly bleed the system and have no brakes….
Another reason to do this job was that the car seemed ( I thought) to loose a bit of brake fluid. So I thought this would give me a chance to check inside the booster for signs of brake fluid.
All seemed to go well. The passenger side bushing was no big deal, and as painful as the driver side was( lying on my back under the steering wheel -trying to access the bolts on the Booster carrier was no picnic. The CD ofcourse is misleading in a way. It just notes – “Remove carrier bolts” etc. Nothing about access or pain.
In any case the master cylinder came out easy, but the Booster gave a fight in the engine compartment. The CD says to not tip it, when removing, rather pull it out straight .I found that impossible to do. There just isn’t enough room to manuver. That done I observed some moisture in the Booster , but no fluid to speak of, so I decided to go ahead and reinstall and use the same Master Cylinder & Booster.
With everything out of the way, replacing the bushing was a breeze. To add insult to injury I must admit that the old bushing did not look too bad. Better than the passenger side.
I then replaces the seal between Booster & Cylinder. (It was positioned in a recess on the cylinder, so that is where I put the new one – Not like the picture on the CD where it seems to have a lip that hugs the Booster opening) Cleaned the reservoir ( what a pleasure to see clear liquid) and replaced it’s grommets. Everything seemed to fall into place. After filling the reservoir with new brake fluid I planned to bleed the brakes as I have done before –The old Gravity way.
The right rear wheel went well , but the left rear did not. Some fluid came out and then there was none…
When My better half stopped to inquire whethter I intend to spend the rest of my life under the car I decided to request help with Pedal pumping. I skipped the left rear but did the other wheels OK – adding fluid occationally to the reservoir. but still no fluid out of the left rear. Is it possible for only one line to have trapped air ? If so , How do you force it out ?
Finally I started the car and tried the brakes myself. Wow. What a disappointment. I have no brakes at all. They pedal goes to the floor and Only a lot of hissing from the booster.
So I am seeking advice here. I am not sure if my problem is the bleeding process, or more severe- Could I have damaged the cylinder with the pumping, or the booster somehow, hence the hissing ?
Also does the running the engine build up vacuum instantly, or does it take time? I had naturally removed the vacuum line to the booster during the R/R. and wondering whether lack of vacuum could that have anything to do with it ?
Oh, I realise I did not bench bleed the Master Cylinder – Didn’t really have the extra lines to do it.
Well, here I am almost proud of all the work I acopomplished today.....

Thanks in advance.

[gidpor]

This is my daily drive. So I am still looking to resolve this myself..with your help.

[william rogers]

Very necessary to bench bleed master cylinder, I found rubber vacum line that fits the brake line outlets so tight that I can screw them in and put all three lines in resivor at once makes bench bleeding a snap. You have to bleed all four wheels
I start at right rear, then left rear ,right front left front. Also if you have the double chamber resivor make sure that the front chamber fills. I use a mighty vac to bleed the calipers so can do the job by myself very quickly.........

William Rogers.......

[haasman]

When I replaced the front sway bar bushings on the 82 300SD (126) I didn't remove the booster etc. Major pain, but well worth it.

Haasman

[gidpor]

Still puzzled as to why I might be able to bleed three wheels and not the forth.
It does make me feel as if the installation did go OK.Otherwise I would not get any joice travelling anywhere ,right? Or not?
William Rogers, are you saying I should still go back and remove the master cylinder to bench bleed ?

Haasman, I am envious of your way. I just could not figure that route..and all the reading I did here
indicated that unlike the 123 &124, with the 126 there just was no short cut. In any case that part is behind me and if I cannot manage to bleed the brakes - I willl give it another try, I am looking at a flat bed....

[greenacres2]

My 560 has a 2-part reservior. The back half feeds the rear brakes, and is filled by overfilling the front half and the fluid dribbles over through a small hole near the filler neck. Difficult to see the fluid level there. I spent 2 days trying to bleed the first time i did it, very similar story. Hope it helps.

[william rogers]

Yes the master cylinder dosn't take but a few minutes to take off it must be fully bled and you must keep both chambers full of fluid fill resivor to top and you will see it feeding the second chamber.Then force your rubber hoses in the brake line outlets(so tight that you have to twist them in you can take you cylinder to an auto parts store and find the right sized rubber tubing I cut them about a foot long) then put the other ends of them in the top filling hole on the resivor and with a large screwdriver pump the plunger on the rear of the master cylinder till the bubbles stop then bleed all four calipers, The whole job can be done in an hour.............

William Rogers.........

[jammer]

Hassman,

Please elaborate on how you replaced front sway bar bushing on a 126 without removing the brake booster. I'd like to to do the same and would rather not mess with the booster if I can. TIA.

[gidpor]

Well I was wrong about the air being trapped in one line only. It just moves around..so that got me confused.
Before removing the Master Cylinder to bench bleed, I did get a friend of a friend to help me with a Shop size Bleeder. That pushed all the air (a lot) trapped in the entire system which I could not bleed the old fashioned way and the brakes are now working fine.
I do take comfort at least in knowing that I did put everything back together and we have closure!

Thanks for the support.

P.S. I need to replace the two black caps on top of the reservoir and am looking for a part #.
Guess I should start a new thread for that.

[haasman]

jammer

It has been several years since I did it .... but as I recall I removed the battery on the pass. side and then on the driver's side I believe I unscrewed the the fuse block but didn't remove any wires....

I removed the plastic cap that cover the swaybar arm where it goes into the body and is held by the big rubber swaybar bushing.

The hard part was getting to the cover for the bushing. It is held in, I believe by two 13mm nuts (trying to recall here).

Once I got that off I was able to move the swaybar up enough to dislodge the big rubber bushing. I used a lot of silicone spray and a stout dowel forcing it to move so I could turn it and get to the split.

Installing wasn't much easier but again a lot of patience paid off.

Once done I was very impressed by how much flatter the car turned and generally better the compliance of the front-end going over bumps.

The rear bushings are a piece of cake in comparison.

haasman

[jammer]

Haasman,

Thanks for the response. I've just finished replacing the front shocks today. Thanks to George Stephenson's (stephenson) excellent post dated 06-24-02, the job went very smoothly. You're right, replacing the rear sway bar links and bushings is straightforward. I did that last week. I'll probably replace the rear shocks next week if the weather cooperates. The front sway bar and the rear subframe bushings will have to wait for now. Thanks again and sorry for misspelling your name in my previous post.

[gidpor]

Since I just did the front SBB's I will mention that
the size is actually 19mm.
The thing I did to facilitate removing and replacing the bushings, was raise the Bar itself from the wheel well ( once I had undone the fasteners) to increase the clearance between Bar and Frame. That seemed to work well.

[jammer]

Well, I finally got around to replacing the front sway bar bushings. The passenger side was easy. Removed the battery, windshield washer bottle and battery tray. Installation was easy too. The driver side was another story. I was determined not to remove the brake booster or anything else for that matter other than the fuse box. I didn’t disconnect any of the wires going into the fuse box or out of it. However I disconnected the two rubber grommets on the side of the fuse box and the rubber bellow at the end of the box where all the wires enter the box. In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have disconnected the bellow as it was a pain trying to reconnect it. I didn’t remove the plastic cap next to the bushing, just pushed it aside. Getting to the cover wasn’t too hard after pushing aside the fuse box. I used a 9 inch wobble extension to get to the two nuts holding the bushing cover. The cover was stuck to the bushing. Bouncing the car a few times released the cover from the bushing and the bushing from the body. Removing the bushing was a pain. Having large hands is a definite disadvantage here. After a couple of hours of pushing, pulling, rotating, spraying silicon lubricant and swearing, the bushing gave up and came out. Remember how the bushing came out as that’s the only way the new one will go in. A lot of leafs and dirt accumulate down there where it is nearly impossible to reach without removing a lot of wires, tubes and pipes so I vacuumed them out then thoroughly cleaned the sway bar and the bushing area. I used silicon grease to lubricate the bushing, sway bar and the bushing depression. Installed the bushing by placing the slit against the sway bar with one hand while separating the slit with a flat head screw driver with the other hand reaching through the opening in the wheel well. The bushing slid over and under the sway bar with moderate pressure. Be prepared to have swollen hands as a result of this operation. Again with smaller hands the work would have been easier and probably less painful. At the end of the day, the outcome is well worth the effort, swollen hands and all. The car now takes turns with much less lean especially right turns. Thank you Haasman for your suggestion.

[haasman]

Riadh

Wow, your description made me re-live it! I remember when I had finished with the 126 I had a bunch of scrapes and cuts and I could not remembe where they came from

It is a pain when deciding not to remove the booster but you are right in that the results are well worth it.

Good job!

Haasman

[wbain5280]

There is this power bleeder:

http://www.ipdusa.com/ProductsCat.aspx?CategoryID=1595&NodeID=5088&RootID=629

or this one:

http://www.ipdusa.com/ProductsCat.aspx?CategoryID=45&NodeID=524&RootID=629

IPD is Volvo related but the brake components are all pretty much the same.

IMHO.