Anyone know Honda brakes well?

[ThomasTPFL]

1998 Honda Civic CX, non ABS

Front brakes were dragging to the point of overheating and locking up. Pretty much cooked the front brakes. Blamed it on old hoses or calipers.

I took this as an opportunity to do a full brake job. New pads/rotors/calipers/hoses up front, shoes/drums/cylinders/hoses in the back.

Couldn't pull any fluid through to the rear when it came time to bleed.

Lots of round and round, checked master cylinder. Realized the proportioning valve wasn’t allowing fluid to move through to the rear lines. Figured maybe this was the root of the original problem.

Went to the junkyard came home with the wrong valve. Honda used the exact same valve on later models except it is set up for a different flare than the earlier models. Different junkyard found the right one.

Pulled it, blew in the mc fitting on the valve, covered the front brake fitting, air came out the rear brake fitting. Left and right. Everything seemed fine.

Brought it home thend decided I felt more like riding the Puch around on some scooter  related errands than working on the car.  It was still 96* when I finally brought myself to look at the thermometer around six today.

Came home from my errand and realized I couldn’t reuse the flare nut that I had to remove with vice grips, found that the 3/16 die was missing from my flare tool set.  Went and bought a new one. And a puller set so I can tweak the Puch’s clutch later.

NOW THE “NEW” VALVE IS ACTING THE SAME AS THE OLD. 

Read ads up on resetting the things.  Made a rig using an old scooter master cylinder so I can push fluid backwards through the valve.  I can push fluid backwards but then it goes right back to the same.

Didn’t get as far as trying to put anything back on the car.



MY BIG QUESTION. HOW IS THE PROPORTIONING VALVE SUPPOSED TO BEHAVE WHEN OFF THE CAR?  HOW DO YOU TEST ONE?

Was it sticking when I was able to blow through it?  Will it bleed properly? I’m confused and can’t find answers online.

 

[geoffh]

Thomas,when I buy a car I always buy the Haynes manual for it,sometimes they are hard to read and make you feel like a 4yr old but they do contain the answers to most problems,just how I avoid garages.

geoff

[harleyracer59]

I think its either air in your abs or air/ water in lines had a Harley that would lock up brakes when the got warm. youd have to open bleeder on caliper to get them to release. with that being said, id start at the master cylinder.
1 bench bleed all fluid then all air out of master.
2 connect master to prop valve. bleed all air from the out of prop
3 connect ^^^ assembly to abs block bleed all air out of this. if I remember correctly, those abs units need to be hot wired or jumped to bleed proper. look into that. I think that is keeping you from getting everything clear.

4 connect to lines once the above is 100% air free then bleed normally, starting with the farthest point from master cylinder (RR) then LR then RF then LF.
lots of work but should fix you up. research that abs bleeding though. I remember something screwy about it needs to be done, hotwired. bypassed. one of those. but ive slept since then