A few things come to mind: First is the bias valve, which has already been brought up. When this failed in my Milano, I retrofit a Spider/early GTV6 style proportioning valve. This worked quite well & was an easy fit. That doesn't really address your problem except to say that the bias valve is failure-prone as I'm sure you know, & if you have an early-style proportioning valve lying around, that might save you from having to purchase a bias valve and/or installing a used bias valve that could just as well be faulty.
Second is to make sure your front calipers are mounted on the correct side of the car. A left caliper mounted on the right side or vice-versa will put the bleed screw at the bottom of the caliper, & it will never bleed. I've seen it happen. Now that you have Spider rear calipers, this is a possibility on the rear as well, but you had this problem before swapping out the rear calipers, I believe. Third, I thought I'd share my technique for bleeding brakes since many people seem to find difficulty in bleeding the brakes in transaxle cars. It's very simple, & I started doing this now that I'm a one-man show & have no one to help me bleed brakes. I simply use a really long length of vinyl tubing (about 5 or 6 feet) with a 2" piece of rubber vacuum tubing at the end to fit tight onto the bleed nipple. I use the excess length to make a riser loop well over the top of the caliper I'm bleeding. I loop it over a fuel line, suspension member, or anything else I can find that will hold the tubing about a foot or so over the top of the caliper. From there, I pump the pedal, keep the reservoir topped up, & check for a solid column of fluid in the vinyl tubing. Air tends to travel to the highest point in the system, & the riser loop creates an artificial high point. I don't need anyone hold the pedal while I close the bleeder. After I release the pedal, I have about 30 seconds or so to close the bleeder before the air pocket makes it over the riser loop & back into the caliper. Since I started doing this, I've never had any problems getting brakes to bleed on any type of Alfa or any other vehicle for that matter. In fact, I find it easier than the familiar two-person system. Best of luck, Michael Keith Houston, TX -- to be removed from alfa, see http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi or email "unsubscribe alfa" to [email protected]
