2002 Duramax ?

[SWAG]

I recently had one of the bolts come out of the brake assembly on the left front side of my truck. In doing so, the brakes were closed and of course I had a hard/full pedal. I bled the brakes off, relligned the assembly, and put in the new bolt. I had very little pedal so I assumed I had now gotten air in the lines. Have bled them off but I still only have a small amount of pedal at the end of the stroke. Anybody got any ideas?

[Cuttin_Up]

Sounds like you may still have air in the system. Are you sure you dont have any external leaks? If not, you may have to pressure bleed the hydraulic brake system in order to purge any air that may still be trapped in the system. Just a thought....I'm definitely not a brake expert.

[RNAIL]

the best way, but not the easiest is to replace the pads so you have as much thickness as possible. Also you may need to have your rotors checked for allowable thickness. If you only replace the pads, take the top off your brake fluid resevoir and depress the calipers with a caliper press(any parts store has them, rather cheap too) to put on the new pads. Do not crack open the bleed plug to bleed the brakes. Doing it this way ensures that no air gets into the system. Just a thought.

Also, since you have started the bleeding process anyway, go the wheel that is the futher's away from the master cylinder, should be the right rear. The air will go there first. Start at that wheel and work your way back to the front. An old mechanic trick is to get a clear bottle and some rubber tubing about 2 foot long, put some liquid in the very bottom of the bottle, insert the tube after you connect it the bleed plug, break the plug open and if you have any air of course it will bubble in the bottle. Repeat the process on each wheel to ensure clean fluid. Hope this helps. Rnail

[SWAG]

Thanks. Never thought about going to the wheel farthest away. Just have been bleeding it from the one I worked on. Pads and rotors look good. No external leak that I can see nor any loss from the reservoir. Is it possible there are seals gone bad in the master cylinder?

[RNAIL]

If the master is leaking you will see fluid on the firewall(where it is mounted) or take a light and shine it into where the brake pedal rod goes through the firewall. That is the two places they usually leak.