I'm working on a 2000 F-450 with a v-10 in it. The guy ran his brakes down, wore the rotor right out, over extended caliper and all. We installed a new rotor, caliper, new front pads, new hydro booster, and new mastercylider. Bled master cyl, hooked up the brake lines, and bled each caliper out. The brakes are working, however, I still get a soft pedel. Is there a certain way to bleed this system out? Please let me know. Thanks!

 

I'm thinking you really should bleed the entire system starting with the right rear, then left rear, then right front, and left front last, that way you'll have nice, clean, fresh fluid in the system.

 

Thats how we bled the system out. Started by bleeding the master, than hooked up the lines, and bled each caliper, in that order actually. We had alot of fluid coming out of the calipers. No air though at this point. Pumped up and bled each caliper 3 times. No air, so we moved to the next. The pedel still sits soft though. I appreciate you posting so soon!

 

With the Kelsey-Hayes ABS unit, you have to exercise the ABS unit while bleeding. You need a scan tool to do it, and it has to be one that can make the ABS unit turn on.

 

I think Krewat just described in detail what they had to do to mine. When I had my new rear end put on, I got in to drive away and the brake pedal went to the floor. They tried about 8 times to bleed the brakes, and ended up calling a Ford specialist. He said pretty much what Krewat said. When I picked up the truck from this place, they explained pretty much what Krewat said also. I will say that the brakes are the best they've been since I've had the truck. Nice and tight and feels great. The machine did it!

 

The scan tool (or whatever they call it) turns on each valve in the ABS unit, and runs the ABS pump at the same time. While doing this, with the ABS pump on, all you have to do is open the bleed nipples one at a time and it pumps the brake fluid for you.

I read somewhere on the web, that a guy had actually taken a solenoid coil module from another ABS unit from a junkyard, opened it up, bolted it to his ABS valve unit, and energized each solenoid manually with +12V, while giving the ABS pump +12V also. It achieved the same thing.

The coil pack for the solenoids/valves is removable as a unit.

Which is probably what I'm going to do when it comes time to do the job on my '01

The theory-of-operation is detailed here, not exactly the same thing, but buried in here is the way the ABS unit works:

ABS Series: Kelsey-Hayes 4WAL, Larry Carley, Brake & Front End, July 2001

 

Well I hook up the scanner, find the bleed brakes option, and I can't get it to find a connection with the truck. The key was on, and I also tried starting it. The scanner was working off of its own battery power, when I assume it normally works off the car's power. Does this mean that somthing is wrong with the plug and/or system in the truck? Thanks guys!

 

Could be a blown fuse - there's supposed to be power to the OBD-II connector, but forget where the fuse is for it.

 

I found a blown fuse, and now the scanners working. It has you hold the pedal down as you bleed the system. Hopefully this will work. Thanks for all the help!

 

VERY cool! What kind of scanner is it?

 

VERY INTERESTING.....I to would like to know what type scanner is needed, I'm hoping my Actron CP9175 scanner will work for brake bleeding.

 

Well the snap on scanner did bleed somthing, I'm assuming the master cylinder. However, it still did not work. Another guy came by with a laptop. Pluged it into the truck and was able to test and bleed everthing. He was able to find that the new caliper we put on was faulty.

BTW if anyone has a problem bleeding, and doesnt know why, put a vice grip on each of the 4 rubber to the calipers, than pump up the brakes. If you get a hard pedal, you know its not in your lines. Than release one vicegrip at a time till the pedal goes down and you will be able to isolate your problem. I never even thought of doing that, but it worked great.