So, my wife decided that I need to change the brakes on the Pathy this weekend. Seeing that I've done brake pad replacements on many other cars (including my Maxima) in the past, I figured this would be a piece of cake - I'm thinking an hour and a half, tops. Hoping that someone can give me some advice or point me in the right direction, because how much more wrong could I have been on that assessment!!
Just to give you a little history on the Pathy at this point, the truck's brakes have been really loose lately. By 'loose', I mean that the pedal travel was waaay farther than it normally had been up to this point. Almost to the floor. And as of the past week or so, the 'brake' and 'anti-lock lights in the dash would come on intermittently. So I got everything that I needed, took the Pathy to my friend's garage (I stay in an apartment, so no garage of my own), and got to work. Here's a rundown of how I got to where I'm at (and keep in mind that some of the wording is from a 1994 FSM) :
Blocked off rear wheels (because I decided to do JUST the front brakes)
E-brake on (just in case...)
Removed driver front tire
Verified that the reservoir was full
Opened air bleeder valve
Removed the two torque member fixing bolts from behind the caliper
Disconnected the union bolt holding the brake hose to the caliper (two copper washers came off as well)
Pulled the entire caliper assembly away from the rotor
Popped the old brake pads off from the caliper assembly
Pressed the pistons back into the caliper assembly by hand, since I did not have a c-clamp
Installed the new brake pads
Put the caliper assembly back onto the rotor and seated it
Replaced the union bolt and brake hose, along with the copper washers
Reconnected the two torque member fixing bolts
Closed the air bleeder valve
I repeated this procedure with the passenger-side front tire, as well. After I put everything back together, I once again made sure that the reservoir was full-up and proceeded to bleed the entire brake system starting with the passenger rear, driver rear, passenger front, driver front. No ABS, so that was not an issue. Here's where the issue came up. Back brakes bled fine. Got to the Passenger front, but no fluid came out of the bleeder valve. Went through the bleeding procedure at least 5-7 times, but still nothing came out. My friend suggested that the caliper may have frozen, but I wasn't gonna give up on it just yet. Removed the brake hose from the caliper and verified that fluid was coming out of the hose (which it was). Also checked that both the holes on the union bolt as well as the aire bleeder valve holes were not obstructed. Did this for both front calipers. Re-bled the entire system again, but the same thing was happening - no fluid coming out of the air bleeder valves up front after pumping the brake pedal a few times and holding it down.
Just on the off chance that my friend was right, I went ahead and bought a new caliper for the passenger front side. I installed it, and re-bled the entire system, but still have the same results as before. Is there something I missed or failed to do (or not do)? Frankly, I'm stumped at this point, and unsure what to do next. But I know I have to do something, as this is my family's only means of transportation to school/work. So, in a word... HELP!