91 Brake problem

[Guest Leroy Cook]

My brake pedal goes down to far before the brakes are applied. I have bled the system, replace the master cyl and inspected the pads on all four wheels.

Whith the engine off I have good pedal. But when I start the engine the pedal goes down. How can the booster be checked? There must be a way?

[Ronnie]

Leroy this won't solve your problem but it might give you a hint about what is going on. Apply the parking brake all the way by repeatedly pumping the parking brake pedal until the parking brake is tight. Then start the car and see if you have a better pedal than before. If you do you may have pistons in the rear calipers sticking or not adjusting properly. It's just a shot in the dark but it might point you in the direction you should be looking for the problem.

[Guest RaverReatta]

The same thing is happening on my 1990, it stays loose for a majority of the push and then near the floorboard it finally starts to brake right? I posted about this not too long ago and what I was told was that my power brakes were probably the cause.

As cliche and general as it is, when I can't find something on the forums I check the "universal" things like e-how and such and give it a try. Here's a link to their writeup on testing brake boosters:

How to Test Brake Boosters | eHow.com

I don't know if it will do you any good or not, but it's worth a try eh!

I'd also like to say that Ronnie's suggestion makes a lot of sense, especially in the case that you have an old mystery-clunker like mine. If it's sat a while (or merely is showing its age) then odds are there a lot of things that have rusted and stick, don't function anymore, etc. (Unfortunately I have no parking brake either :l )