I have a '80 Vanagon Westie here that is trying to drive me insane.  The guy
brought it in to have some brake work done.  He could see that one of his
calipers was leaking and draging and the pedal was feeling soft.
He told me to replace the brake booster, the master cylinder, and the front
calipers and whatever the brake system needed.
I had a set of known good, used calipers that we decided to use for the front
and I set my helper on this project because I was busy with two other vans.
My helper replaced the booster, the master cylinder, and the two front
calipers.  We then bled the system.  Pedal was still low and it seemed that
you could pump it up, then let off of it, and after a few seconds it was low
again.  I then inspected the rear brakes.  One wheel cylinder was bad, I
replaced that and I also had a thin drum on one side.  I put a new drum on
and also a new set of shoes.  We bled it three more times.  Still low pedal,
kinda smooshie.  I went out and bought a power bleeder (Mity Vac).  I had
wanted one of these for a while any way.  Bled it again, still the same.  I
inspected the metal lines and the rubber lines and found that all of the
rubber lines had bulges in them.  I thought I had finally found the problem.
I replaced all of the lines with new ones.  Bled the system again.  Still the
same!!

Any suggestions?  I am starting to suspect that my helper did something wrong
when he installed the brake booster, however I can't figure out how the brake
booster could cause a low, smooshie pedal.  The only other thing I can think
of is that the one of the parts we put on is defective.  Any help would be
appreciated.  Usually brake jobs are so simple, this one is starting to get
to me.

Thanks,
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com
Phone: (856)-765-1583
Fax: (856)-327-2242

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