brake bleeding problems...

[brett at netacc.net (Brett VanSprewenburg)]

>ok. so i made it to atlanta fine with my stuck caliper without 
>incident. today i put on the new one, and used a vacuum bleeder to 
>bleed them (since i was alone). first time i've used a vacuum 
>bleeder, and i had a bit of trouble getting rid of all the bubbles. 
>i assumed (!) they were coming through the screw threads. 2 issues 
>now:
>--the parking brake on the new caliper doesn't work too well. the 
>cable pulls the mechanism far, and it works a bit, but the wheel 
>still turns. is this due to faulty bleeding, or a faulty mechanism? 
>the caliper seems to work/brake well otherwise.
>--i had a lot of trouble bleeding the left rear; it seemed that the 
>screw was clogged. is this common? tia,
>
>
>-Michael Abatzis
>New Orleans!


Was this a 'rebuilt' rear Scirocco caliper by any chance?  I've 
returned more of them then
I can remember...for non-working ebrake or non-working hydraulic 
caliper (but a great
ebrake on that unit!).

Anyway, it's possible that the caliper just needs to self-adjust a 
bit.  If I remember
correctly, the Bentley suggests pumping the brakes about 50 times _without_ the
engine running to help reseat the caliper pistons against the pads. 
Think about the
fact that you had to 'spin' them in when you changed them.

As for the screw, no, I've never seen one that's been clogged.  But I 
have seen the
brake fluid leak around the threads under pressure if the bleeder 
screw is unseated
too far.  Maybe you could switch to those fancy spring loaded ball 
bearing bleeder
screws sold at places like Autozone and Pep Boyz.  I've heard they work fairly
well during the bleeding process.   Hmm, wonder if they work well with the
vacuum bleeder system you used...I've used pressure bleeder 
assistance with great
success in the past  (tire inflater jambed in a spare resivour cover and
connected to my air compressor - set to about 10-15psi).

==Brett