Spongey brakes?

[StagNL]

I’ve bled brakes several times in the past but now have a something that I have not experienced before.  I have recently rebuilt the front brake calipers on my Stag and now the brake pedal is rather spongey and when the engine is off it still is spongey whereas beforehand it was rock hard after one pump.
Driving on the road is still out of the question as the brakes will not work unless the pedal has been pumped several times and even then the brakes are woefully inadequate and spongey.
Bled again tonight and no improvement.  Have I missed something somewhere?  

Julian

[stag_ste]

If you press the brake pedal a couple of time with the hand brake on, does the spongyness still remain if you apply the brakes again after a few seconds? If so, then the rear shoes could do with a look see at the adjuster.


Can you also get someone to press the brake pedal whilst you check all the flexible pipes for bulging?

Do they need bleeding again? Did you do them in the right sequence? Has the PDWA switch been triggered?

[StagNL]

Rear shoes were replaced at the same time.  Bleeding starting from rear.  All flexible pipes 2 yrs old braided items.
The PDWA I have not yet looked at.  Should it be out of position, I'm hoping that it can be brought back into check?

[anthropoidape]

699 wrote:

Rear shoes were replaced at the same time.  Bleeding starting from rear.  All flexible pipes 2 yrs old braided items.
The PDWA I have not yet looked at.  Should it be out of position, I'm hoping that it can be brought back into check?

Yep, easy once you know how. If you end up pulling it out for whatever reason, I have several spares of the o-rings of the correct size and material - I bought a bag of them when I did mine.

If you are bleeding the brakes with the old-school push-the-pedal method, then I think you would have tripped a PDWA unless it was seized. I do not believe that a tripped PDWA would cause spongy brakes though, but I could be wrong.

Personally I would guess you just need to bleed it again, if you are anything like me then it will take you about 50 goes at bleeding before they work right. I don't know why but I can never get the hang of it.