Wilwood brake bleed problem

[mike472]

I just installed IE's BBK with Wilwood calipers all around using new lines and a new single circuit master cylinder. After hooking up my big Mity Vac air powered bleeder and going around the car until I could get fluid from each bleeder I was soon able to get somewhat of a pedal. My buddy then started pumping the pedal and I tried going around using the classic pump it up then open the bleeder, push pedal to the floor, close bleeder, then let pedal up, pump it up and again and repeat until you stop seeing air. Problem was that even with any bleeder fully open, the pedal would not go down to the floor.

I have the front two ports on the master connected to the right and left front, the rear side port plugged and the bottom rear port going to the rear brakes so I don't think I created a block or opposing hydraulic force. The lines are all new and I got fluid through them using the Mity Vac. I spoke to Jeremy at IE and he suggested we tried burping the master cylinder from the blocked port but still no dice. The pedal remained spongy and would not go down to the floor no matter what bleeder I opened. The only conclusion we could come to was bad master cylinder new out of the box. IE is sending me a new master cylinder to try and hopefully thats it. Is there a way for a master cylinder to be behaving this way? I thought that when the seals went bad, the pedal would just go to the floor and/or leak into your pedal box. Anyone else had this experience?

[TobyB]

heh- I don't think that's a single master.

It looks like a tandem- and if it is, it's working as it's supposed to-

try turning the rear wheels when you've got pressure on the pedal,

and the front fully bled.

I bet you won't be able to.

A single almost always is half that length.

That's what it looks like to me. And I don't think that's a bad thing at all.

t

[mike472]

heh- I don't think that's a single master.

It looks like a tandem- and if it is, it's working as it's supposed to-

try turning the rear wheels when you've got pressure on the pedal,

and the front fully bled.

I bet you won't be able to.

A single almost always is half that length.

That's what it looks like to me. And I don't think that's a bad thing at all.

t

This is new aluminum single circuit MC from a 320i that IE sent me and it has 4 ports versus 5 in my old cast iron one. The old one had one line going to the rear from the same port I'm using on the new one and a pair of lines going to each side. With this setup one of the 4 ports is blocked using only three. Should I try opening a front and rear bleeder at the same time? I think the front is fighting the back because the two circuits are separate in the master cylinder. I'm just trying to fathom how this could be. Maybe some line swapping is in order.