Bleeding ABS brakes - Mk3 Cav

[Joy]

Been doing a lot of maintainence to my Cav SRi Turbo over the last few months - lots of welding, new fuel tank, fuel lines, rear axle bushes, rear calipers & more. I`ve also replaced all rigid brakes lines (except from m/cyl to modulator) & in doing this I`m pretty sure the ABS pump has drawn in some air.

I`ve bleed the brakes a few times now (with a Power Bleeder) & am left with seemingly fully functional but very spongy brakes. I`m guessing the pump won`t expel the air in it till its in operation.

My questions - is there any way to `excite` or trick the pump into operating ? Would bleeding the system with the engine running help or could something else be causing the problem.

Any help suggestions appreciated

Rich

[Astra Dan]

There's loads of old woves tales about bleeding ABS systems in the correct order (furthest to shortest lines) and I think the Haynes says the ignition should be on. But in all my experience, just do it as normal and it'll be fine.
Have you fitted new discs and pads all round? I'd imagine if all 4 corners are new the pedal will not feel nice for 50 odd miles yet. Once you reckon you've bed the brakes in it might not hurt to go out for a spirited drive and get the ABS functioning a few times to be sure. But, when I swapped the ABS pump/ module in my GTE I just bled as normal.

[Joy]

I`ve heard may different theories as well. Discs & pads havn`t been changed, only the rear calipers, I`ve never had a problem bleeding systems with ABS before but this is the only one where the pump/modulator has been allowed to run dry.

I`m gonna try & use/borrow a Tech 2 scanner to `test cycle` the pump & try bleeding it again.

[pie]

as above bleed as normal tock me a couple of time when i ftted 4 pots to the cav

[Joy]

as above bleed as normal tock me a couple of time when i ftted 4 pots to the cav

Was the 1st thing I did, tried this a few times (at least 4) with no improvement, already flushed a few litres of dot 5.1 through the system, don`t wanna go wasting too much more.