[T3] BrakeBleeding

[Jim Adney]

John,

Here's what I think I understand about your situation:

You've bled all 4 wheels and now nothing but brake fluid comes out.

The first time you press the brake pedal, it goes to the floor.

If you press the brake pedal several times, you get a nice, high, 
firm pedal.

You don't have any leaks.


If all these are correct, there's only one explanation: Your rear 
brakes are out of adjustment. Here's how to adjust them:  

Jack up the rear wheels on jackstands and block the front wheels.

Release the parking brake. Check the ends of the parking brake 
cables, where they exit at the base of the parking brake lever. 
Typically, they stick out of the locknuts about 1 cm. If yours stick 
out a lot farther than that, spin the nuts out until they do. The 
parking brake should only be adjusted AFTER adjusting the shoes.

Back under the car, tighten an adjuster while spinning the tire 
slowly with your other hand. When the tire starts to get hard to 
spin, start turning it back and forth. Keep tightening while turning 
back and forth, until you can just barely turn the wheel. Then back 
off a couple teeth on that adjuster.  

Repeat for each of the other 3 adjusters.

Get in the car and start the engine. Run the wheels forward and 
depress the brake pedal until you feel the brakes slow down the 
engine a bit, then put it in reverse and apply the brakes again just 
enough to slow down the engine. Do this several times in each 
direction. This "centers" the shoes in the adjuster and wheel 
cylinder slots.

Put it in neutral and check the brake pedal feel. It should be very 
high now. If not, kill the engine and go back and repeat the 
adjusting steps above.

Once you have a good pedal, go back to the adjusters and back each 
one off just enough that the shoe doesn't drag when you spin the 
wheel. You'll need to back both adjusters off maybe 2 teeth at a time 
to free up the wheel. This can be fiddly because with 2 shoes 
rubbing, you won't be able to tell when one of them is back far 
enough, so you'll probably have to go in and out a bit before you get 
it right.


-- 
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************