brake bleeding from scratch

[nistri]

I guess you have an S2 Fulvia (with 21 mm master cylinder and Girling calipers). Double check the brake pipe connections as I recall that there was even a mistake in one of the official Lancia instructions. From memory I  cannot now tell you the correct fitting, though (sorry).

I also assume you have raised the car (at the back) by fitting axle stands under the rear axle: this allows full opening of the brake limiter valve, otherwise it will not be possible to bleed the system fully.

The length of the servo pushrod is critical for correct operation of the brakes. Did you measure up how much it is on your car?

Difficult bleeding can be greatly helped by using the pressurized system (EezyBleed) with the aid of the spare wheel pressure.

I also guess you have used the correct bleeding sequence starting with the front top nipple of the passenger side.

Good luck, Andrea 

[ncundy]

Why would putting axles stands under the rear axle help? Surely you have to jack the body up off the axle as it's the relative height difference between the body and the axle that opens the limiting valve 

[mister bridger]

Have to agree with ncundy there, though as I'm getting fluid to the back brakes it's probably not part of the problem. I've tried bleeding in every sequence I can think of. What is the accepted "correct" sequence? Brakes are plumbed as per the diagram on p29 of the concise repair shop manual.

[chugga boom]

just a thought for you, on my augusta there is pitting right at the end of the master cylinder, when bleading the brakes the seals travel futher than normal travelling accross the pitting and allowing air into the system, to get around this i mearly cracked one blead nipple at a time and let gravity take over , didnt pump the brake pedal at all just let the fluid run through, takes longer but ended up with a solid pedal, with the system blead the seals go no where near the pitting in the master cylinder so is perfectly safe, may be worth a try, i always bleed brakes this way now, when i did the fulvia last week i disconected the load valve lever off the rear axle and pushed it all the way up to give maximum fluid flow, then disconected the brake pipe where it goes onto the n/s rear caliper until fluid came through, reconected pipe then blead caliper, did the same on o/s rear then went to n/s front and just used the bleed nipples then finally os front, whole job took about an hr but pedal was solid 1st time, hope this works for you, james

[nistri]

Jacking up the rear axle pushes the arm of the brake limiter valve that in turn pushes the valve arm inside its housing and opens full flow of brake fluid to the rear brakes, ciao,  Andrea

[nistri]

Front of the car

Master cylinder (LHD)

Steering wheel (left)

Nipple sequence:
2 (top front)         1 (top front)

4(bottom)            3 (bottom)

6 (rear)               5 (rear)

This is the bleeding sequence recommended by Lancia. For RHD cars just swap sides.
Good luck, Andrea

[stanley sweet]

That's exactly how I did mine recently - tops, bottoms, rears with axle on jack - worked perfectly first time. However...........that was after a lot of messing about which sounds very similar to the original problem here. Press the brake pedal and the fuid would bubble in the reservoir. Cylinder rebuilt a couple of times to make sure parts were correct but it turned out to be pitting which I hadn't noticed. Had it refurbished at Omicron and that was the problem solved.

[ncundy]

Jacking up the rear axle pushes the arm of the brake limiter valve that in turn pushes the valve arm inside its housing and opens full flow of brake fluid to the rear brakes, ciao,  Andrea

You're correct of course, I need to get into the garage more