Dennis, you ARE saying to open the bleeders before pushing the pads in.
You DO NOT want the old fluid going back into the tank, right? I don't
mean to restate the obvious, just wanted to be clear in my own mind. I
may be up for this soon.

Regards,

John Rodgers

On 6/6/2012 6:01 PM, Dennis Haynes wrote:
> Sounds like one the checks in the master cylinder failed. With the reservoir
> visible push on the pedal. If there is any sign of fluid going back in when
> pressing the master is the problem. When the brakes were done was the
> bleeders opened on the calipers opened when the pistons were pushed back in
> or was that fluid pushed back up into the master? That can often be a cause
> of master failure after a brake job.
>
> Dennis
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Harry Hoffman
> Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 9:45 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Help Please, Lost Brakes :-(
>
> Hi All,
>
> So I was driving all today and all of the sudden my brakes stopped working.
>
> I was attempting to slow down coming to a stop sign when the pedal went
> straight to the floor.
>
> I pumped the brake pedal and got pressure back when attempting to depress
> the pedal but then eventually it the pedal went back down to the floor.
>
> Sometimes the pedal will drop to the floor without any resistance and other
> times there will be some resistance before hitting the floor.
>
> The reservoir is still at the max level and the emergency brake is holding
> on a incline.
>
> It's a 1989 vanagon with the bostig setup.
>
> Both front discs and rear drums were replaced ~ 1000mi ago.
>
> Help, please!
>
> Cheers,
> Harry
>