awfull brakes galaxy mk1 - no ABS

[Ricky Twine]

hiya guys,

so I have a 1997 galaxy with no abs.

when we bought the car, it had poor brakes, we checked the reservoir first, it seemed to be filled to the absolute max, and with water, it was clear white substance that tasted only a little like brake fluid.
so we drained the system by the driver side front calliper, using normal bleed technique. we filled it with fresh dot4, and bled the same calliper until it was working, then bled the rest, near side front, then rear, then off side rear to expel any shit fluid, then emptied the system again from the front driver calliper, filled the reservoir once more and bleed the brakes in the same order until all air was expelled.
we tested the car on the road and the brakes were no existent, we couldn't figure the problem, the servo/MC seemed to leak, so we bought second hand ones from ebay, fitted them, and the brakes are still the same, we couldn't be sure the problem, so we took my dads 1999 sharan, and swapped his servo, MC, vacuum hose, and vacuum pump, over to the galaxy, one at a time, assuming it would fix the problem, as the sharan was working fine before..... and yet the brakes still don't function properly.

now, the servo MC seem to hold pressure, but with the brake pedal having 100% travel, the first 90% seems to not do anything, and the last 10% engages the brakes, but not enough to do an emergency stop at even 10mph, at 30mph the brakes with foot to the floor, stop the car completely after maybe, 60ft?
like crazy shit brakes!

I have seen a post from earlier (herehttps://www.fordmpv.com/smf2/ford-galaxy/bloody-sodding-brakes-on-mk1/msg8219/#msg8219 )....  so I have held each flexi hose, and had the brakes pressed and cant feel any swelling...
also had each wheel jacked, and spun the wheel and pressed the brake, each work properly, we have each calliper off, the disks feel like they could do with a change, as do the pads, but ive seen both in worse condition and work perfectly fine, so I'm sceptical about them being the issue...

any advice guys? we completely stumped, ive never had to take a brake system this far apart? I'm losing the desire to work on it any more lol =[
with bleeding, we done off side front, near side front, near side rear, off side rear. because we fitted a new MC etc, we topped up the reservoir, pumped the breaks a few times between the opening/closing of the nipple, released the pedal slowly, and left it 5/10 secs between the bleeds to allow the mc to fill... I'm assuming/sure we are doing it right, but my only feeling left it air in the system, ive evn driven it an put the brakes on hard a few times to try moving any air blocks, but no air comes out when re-bleeding.

thanks in advance!

[johnnyroper]

Common practice is furthest from master first when bleeding,but it sounds like you don't have any air coming out anymore and everything has been changed except calipers.
Have you tried clamping the flexible hoses to see if you can get a pedal? If not I would give that a go you could try one at a time or all at once then release one at a time.
If the old fluid was water contaminated it could well have damaged caliper a internally.