No Pressure in brake system

[jmandawg]

Hi,

We got a walmart kt196 coleman go kart, and out of the box the brakes were locked up, i opened up the bleeder valve and had my daughter press the brake, i tighted the bleeder valve and now there is zero pressure in the system. The pedal goes to the floor and the brakes don't engage.

I opened the valve again and pressed the brake pedal and no fluid comes out the bleeder valve, but there is fluid in the reservoir.

Any ideas what could be wrong?

 

[Bbqjoe]

Take it back!!!

No brainer.

 

[OzFab]

Any ideas what could be wrong?

Simple answer, the fluid is not getting from the reservoir to the caliper...

The more detailed answer is a bit more complicated; either:
- the master cylinder is not working*
- there's air in the system; do you have experience bleeding brakes?

*With the system sealed (ie: bleed nipple closed), slowly pump the pedal a few times; the pedal should start to get harder; if not, the master is not working; if the pedal does harden, that's a good sign; then try bleeding again...

Having said that, if this is a new product, as stated above, contact the seller/supplier before doing anything...

 

[gokartt]

Check if it came with brake oil or not. If not, then you would want to fill some.

 

[kenworth85]

Brake oil ????

 

[ezcome-ezgo]

Also check for snake oil.

 

[Bbqjoe]

Well?

I might consider firing it up in Walmarts lot, then crashing it through the front doors.
When the greeter asks WTF? I'd tell him I'm bringing it back because it has no brakes.

 

[jmandawg]

LOL, thanks for the laugh guys, i called coleman and they are going to send a new master cylinder. hopefully that will fix it.

 

[jmandawg]

So you guys will not believe this, I took the master cylinder apart, and there is a rod with a spring on the end and two V shaped gaskets on the rod, they were both facing the same direction like this (where '||||' is the spring and ">" is the v-shaped gasket and '--' is the rod):

||||-->-->--

i took one off and faced it the opposite way so it looks like this:

|||||-->--<--

I put it back together and now it works, go figure. I have never taken one apart before so i don't know if that's how the gasket is supposed to be oriented. I would have taken pics, but i really did not think it was going to work!

Does anyone know if they are supposed to be facing opposite directions?

edit: It looks just like this pic, so i guess they are supposed to go the same direction, hope this doesn't screw anything up.

 

[SammyCat]

It doesn't matter, they're sending you a new one.

 

[jmandawg]

Lol good point.