Having a hell of a time bleeding a couple of new front calipers, way i've been doing it is a length of 3/8th vinyl hose tied up top to act as a reservoir, crack open the screw, and then pump until fluid is halfway up the hose, then i let it sit for a bit until i stop seeing air come out, done this a couple of times now and the pedal is still super mushy, is there some special sauce to this or do i just need to keep repeating this until its set right.

 

I'm wondering if you gotta get the abs unit bled...

One reason I want to take the abs out

 

Sounds like you got air into the ABS unit. I'd install the calipers and take it somewhere to have it bled unless you know someone that has a tool capable of cycling the ABS.

 

There is a sticky thread on code readers and some of them have the ABS bleed command.

But before you do that, you might gravity bleeding since it is so essy to try.

 

This truck has no tag or bumper so going as far as to a shop is a great way to get the 5-0 angry, my plan once my rig was sorted was to take it up the Ferman and have it fully inspected, im sure i've mentioned it before but i am the least qualified person to be saying this thing is Road-worthy, so while its there i'll have them bleed the brakes out and just deal with the slight mush-pedal for the time being. now if only insurance wasnt 400 dollars... Thanks for the input, since the brake lines for the front are much shorter then the rear it makes sense that any draw-down of fluid from them would probably introduce air into the ABS controller.

 

I had this same problem on an older Chrysler last year. And for the same reason. I installed new front calipers and wasn't mindful of the fluid dripping out of the hoses while I was putting everything back together. I just let it run into a coffee can figuring it was no problem since I'm going to bleed them anyway (being ignorant of the 'air in the ABS' problem).

Well, I tried everything I could think of to bleed those brakes, even to the point of using my A/C vacuum pump at each bleeder screw, and being sure to bleed in the correct sequence. Nada. Then I checked the FSM and found out about air in the ABS. Someone on a forum said you could bleed the ABS by driving on a sandy surface, hitting the brakes and skidding the wheels repeatedly - thus activating the ABS and sending the air back up into the reservoir. It worked, to a degree. The pedal came up, but only partway. I think maybe the same wheel(s) were locking up each time, which meant not all the pistons got activated equally. So I finally had to pay a shop their $100 fee to bleed the ABS with their high-end scanner.