Brakes: 164: Feel my brakes

[Pigeon]

Just been bleeding the brakes on my 164 after fitting a recon n/s/f caliper - first time I've done any work on the brakes on it and first Volvo I've had with the dual circuit.

I notice that while I've been able to get them nice and hard without any problem, when I have the nipple undone on either circuit, but done up on the other circuit, the pedal goes nearly all the way to the floor with very little resistance. The fact that one circuit is still supposedly able to build up pressure doesn't seem to make any difference.

It felt the same when the caliper developed the leak (on one piston) in the first place. It had been fine when I parked up but the next time I went to get in the car the pedal went all the way to the floor. There was still a little braking in the last half-inch of pedal travel but it certainly didn't feel like I "still had 80% braking effort available".

Does this mean I've somehow got a leak between the two circuits? I guess that's impossible in the master cylinder and can only be in the shuttle thingy for the brake failure warning light (which seems to be present and wired into the loom even though the dash doesn't have the actual light).

[Snowman]

I split a hose competing in my twin circuit 144, pedal dropped alarmingly but still enough brakes to stop....just never felt as if it would. Agree, it never felt like 80% of what I had before.

Learned a top tip after that, I use braided hoses that wear away eventually in the drop link pipe guides, advised to cover them in spiral wrap and problem now solved.