Last night, I bled the rear brakes.  That was my first time bleeding brakes.  I had bought a brake bleeding kit, the type with the hand held vacuum pump, a while back.  However, when I tried to loosen the brake bleeder screws I found that they were seized!  After a quick look online to figure out what to do, I went to my local Checker Auto Parts store and got a can of PB Blaster.  I used a wet paper towel to dampen the bleeder screw and sprayed on some PB Blaster.  Man, that stuff reeks!  After about 5 minutes I used the side of a crescent wrench and lightly tapped the bleeder screw.  Then I dampened the screw with the wet paper towel again and sprayed some more PB Blaster on.  I did the same to the other side.  Then after waiting another 5 minutes, I decided to give loosening the screws a try.  The screws came lose as if they were never rusted shut in the first place.  Amazing stuff – that PB Blaster.  However, my garage will stink for days.

Anyway, I followed the instructions that came with the brake bleeding kit.  I bled all of the old black grimy brake fluid out while putting in the new Wilwood 570 degree brake fluid.  I did that to both sides.  The dang vacuum canister lid broke!  Why is everything made out of cheap plastic nowadays!?!  I grabbed some superglue and put the vacuum canister lid back together.  If there are any leaks, the vacuum pump will not work.  Fortunately I was able to get it back to the point where it was creating vacuum, but not as strongly as before.  Stupid plastic crap.  Anyway, I bled both rear drum brakes.

After I bled the brakes, I set the preload on the new Caltracs suspension.  I just turned the traction bar until the leaf spring stop just touches the leaf spring, then gave each side a quarter turn extra.  I did this with my wife sitting in the driver’s seat.  I had a bear of a time tightening the nuts that go on either side of each traction bar.  The nut is 1 1/8″ in size.  I found a wrench that could just barely fit in there and do the job.

This morning I took the car out for a test drive to make sure the brakes still work.  I took the car down a side street near my house, went up to about 15 mph and did some hard stops.  Man that brake pedal feels solid now!  Before I bled the brakes, I could push the brake all the way to the floor.  Now, I can only push it about 3/4 way and it won’t go down any more.  Its like a rock.  No problem at all stopping the car.

Then, when I put the car back into the garage, I noticed that my front right tire looked really low.  I checked the pressure – it was only 19 PSI.  Hmm.  Not good.  I put it back up to 36 PSI.  I will have to keep an eye on that thing.