Well I got this car from a kid and of course people who sell stuff never tell you whats wrong. Even got the mom in on it when she told me it was good to go.

Anyways I knew the car had brake issues when I got it. It had a leak at the master cylinder so I swapped that out for a new one. When that was done I found a leak at the rear passenger side. I put 2 new calipers at the rear, new shoes all the way around, and bled all the lines starting from the rear passenger and moving forward to the front drivers side.

When I was done I fired it up and still the same. Pedal mashes all the way to the floor and it hisses as I press it. Once the pedal reaches the floor it barely stops (and that's going at 2 mph).

I checked everything again no leaks and hoses look good. The only thing I can think of is the booster I guess is bad. Confirm?

Also are they a huge pain to replace and has someone taken it to a shop to do? If taken to a shop what was the price? I'm afraid the booster may be out of my ability to replace

Thanks all!

 

hay if u can change the master cylinder and calipers u should be able to handle the booster. pick up a factory service manual for your yr and model. the brakes should be stiff if the booster is not working but if its losing air as u push that may be the issue. do u have abs? not sure on the 87 and if they had it.

 

Nope I don't believe these have ABS brakes. Also the brake light is always on now Too tired today to mess with it further. Sounds like a job for another weekend.

 

u need to check the brake fluid level and see if it looks like your losing any. was the brake light on before u fixed everything or did it come on?

 

It came on right after I swapped out the first caliper in the back.

As for leaks or losing fluid I can't see any. I let it run for a while and kept mashing the pedal. I ran it backward and forward. Checked fluid and it still had plenty of fluid didn't seem like it was losing any.

Oh I also with the car off mashed the pedal a bunch of times until it felt like it wouldn't travel any further. Then with my foot still pressing down on the pedal I started the car and the pedal traveled maybe another inch or two until dead stop.

 

ok i think the 87 has a valve that senses if u are losing fluid in the back or front brakes. when u bled the brakes did you bleed all four the same? if u only bleed the back ones then the sensor thinks it has a leak in the rear brakes and the light comes on. it will or can also shut off the brakes to the leaky end of the car or will have a double resivor one for each end. this is so if u have a complete failure of a brake hose in the rear u will still have brakes. do a search on how to reset the brake light. on the 4th gen u push on the brake really hard to reset. on the last older car i worked on i had to bleed the brakes to the opposite end of the work i did on end. lol.

 

Hmm thanks I'll do a search for the light part.

As for the bleeding I did the old fashion yell at the wife to mash the pedal until the bleeder screw squirted fluid. Once that happened I had her do it one more time while I closed the bleeder screw during to keep air getting back in. I did that on all four starting with back passenger, then to back driver, then front passenger, then front driver.

Thanks again!

 

Did you bench bleed the master cylinder? New ones come with the plastic fittings and hose to do it, so hopefully you did. If not, you have a LOT of air in the system that will take forever to bleed out. You can still do a "bench bleed" while the master is on the car if you need to. The reason the brake light is on is because you still have air in the lines and the pressure switch isn't registering. Your bleeding procedure makes it sound like the brake pedal was being pumped up and down with the bleeder open. If that's the case, air was getting sucked right back in on the back stroke. With the bleeder closed, have the wife pump the brake pedal a few times, then hold it. Open the bleeder and the pedal should drop. Don't let her get off the pedal until the bleeder is closed. Do that over and over until no more air comes out, then on to the next wheel. Oh, and a bad power booster isn't going to give you a dead pedal to the floor.

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

Now it been a long time since ive done this so I might be miss remembering it but a friend of mine use to take a rubber hose and attach it to the bleader valve and then run it into a bottle of brake fliud. So when you push the brake down it pushes air out and when you let it in it sucks up brake fluid. I remember it only took a few min to blled the brake and there was no air in the lines.