I just had to replace the front drivers side brake caliper on my 1989 Volvo 240 Sedan, Followed brake bleeding procedures out of Haynes manual, Cannot get a firm pedal,or get air all out after 5 or 6 cycles of bleeding all points,( rear drivers side-then front upper bleeder on drive side and so on in the called for order.Car seems to get a firmer pedal when car not running( but not great) when I start it, forget it - pedal goes right to floor. Also, when I try to bleed system with car running, it stalls out- I imagine from the amount of vacuum being used by booster. I am in the water as far as getting this thing right! Please, anyone that can give some advice I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank You in advance.

Here are a few tips I have developed over the years. Start by sealing off the fluid reservoir with kitchen plastic wrap(cap applied over wrap). This keeps most of the fluid from leaking out when brake lines are removed from calipar, at least slows it down. When old calipar is removed. I then stick a Q-tip in the line/s to further stop the fluid. I use the ones with a wooden stick with stick cut off one inch from the cotton tip. I use a EZ-Bleed presurized system to bleed the breakes. While bleeding a new calipar, I constantly tap the calipar with a hammer to get the air bubbles on the inside of the calipar to release. Just did a calipar replacement. on my '88 244. It took many cycles while tapping to get all the air out that one calipar.

Hope this helps.

Gary in Maine

If you purchased a rebuilt caliper for the job, read on...there has been an epidemic of improperly rebuilt calipers recently. It happened to me about 2 years ago but several cases have occurred recently. The parts to a caliper are side sensitive. Parts for the left can't be used on the right, etc. However, the outer half of the caliper looks identical from the outside. If a left outside is combined with a right inside, they can't be bled. To check this, look at the caliper. Volvo puts punch marks on the end of the caliper halves. A correctly assembled caliper will have 2 marks on one end. An incorrectly assembled one will have one punch at each end. Let us know what you find.

Skip
'93 850GLT
'83 242TI Flathood

Yes, I, too, have heard many stories about calipers rebuilt wrong (i.e., one half upside down, so the air cannot be bled), but I'd like to suggest another possibility which I think is reported here on this list even more often:

During the process of bleeding the brakes (the first time, following a caliper replacement or just a fluid flush), it's often reported that one cannot remove the air, as indicated by the pedal thereafter being spongy (or going down too far), regardless of how many times it's rebled.

It usually turns out that during or right after the first bleeding, the brake pedal was pushed down too far (e.g., setting new pads?). This moves the piston into debris-laden areas of the bore, which scores and destroys the piston's seals. As a result, the master cylinder now has a major internal leak -- fluid flows from the high-pressure to the low pressure side of the piston ... there's no external leak or drop in fluid level, but the master cylinder can no longer generate and hold a pressure... and the brake pedal can slide down to the floor board with little resistance.

The only solution is a replaced master cylinder.

Anyway, this is another possibility.
Good luck.