A few years ago I built up an vehicle to run on my forest land using two
Jeep steer axles and since it would see infrequent service I used Dot 5
fluid. I had very poor brakes with a soft pedal that I just could not bleed
out. I did not want to blame the Dot 5 but just could not find the
problem--------until I was doing maintenance just before its sale.
On one of the axles I had interchanged the backing plates right for left.
They looked identical. On a steer axle there is king pin inclination of a
few degrees and the mounting holes in the backing plates are drilled to
compensate to get the wheel cylinder on the level so the air will bleed out.
After changing the backing plates from side to side I had solid brakes with
Dot 5 after all.
Ok now for some Honda content. I was replacing the rear brake shoes on my
83 Civic wagon and noticed that the wheel cylinder was not level but canted
at an angle. How do you bleed the brakes on it? The manual does not show
any details. I bleed some new fluid thru but did not open up any of the
system.
A friend had problems with his motor home having a soft pedal and finally
saw that the wheel cylinders were canted. He had to loosen the backing
plate to get rid of the trapped air in the bleeding process.
Has any run into this problem?
Wally in Southern Oregon