Soft brake pedal after a ball joint swap?

Two part question:
1- My brake pedal's been soft ever since I did a ball joint swap on my driver's side. I plan on bleeding them tomorrow, but could my leaky caliper on the passenger side have pulled in the air?

2- I'm leaking from the connection right between the hose and the caliper at the square hub deal. Do I need to replace the hose or the caliper?

if you are leaking fluid there, there are two copper crush washers that create a seal between the hose and caliper. of course if the hose is old and cracking/swelling or otherwise dosent look good. go ahead and replace it. but if its just a simple leak you can try two things.

One, you can just tighten up the banjo bolt a bit, clean the area free of fluid, and step on the brake pedal hard for a few minutes and check if the leak went away.

or

You can either replace the copper crush washers or if in a pinch you could try annealing them. annealing them makes them soft and pliable again. (which is a good thing since they are made to crush/squish out to create the seal) to do this just undo that banjo bolt and grab both the crush washers, hold the washers on something like a coat hanger, and hit them w/ a propane or mapp gas torch until they are glowing cherry red. then quench them in H20. they are now annealed. its that easy. also make sure the surface those washers on it clean and free of rust/corrosion. then you just bleed the brakes after you hook it back up.

also the brake pedal may feel different b/c of grease/oil/contaminates that got on the pads and or rotors during your ball joint work. if thats the case you need new pads and maybe could get away cleaning the rotors good but new ones arent a bad idea. or you can try just driving around for a few weeks and see if the brakes get better.

either way fix what you know needs fixing.... the leaking brake line! either way it needs to get fixed. and if it fixes the brake pedal issue, even better.

That leak that you speak of, alone, would create a soft pedal..fix that and see what happens after bleeding.

Tightened up the leak and bled the brakes, still really soft on the pedal.

Did you bleed all wheels RR/LR/RF/LF?

new washer, bleed following the pattern, might as well flush out all the old fluid with fresh while your down there. If its still soft, grab a bud and re-check for leaks. At that point I would say that you must have damaged the hose (real easy to do) during the ball joint swap.. Replace hose. Repeat. Drink beer and throw tools when you realize that your rear brakes were out of adjustment. Yeah, check the drums and make sure they are adjusted out when you bleed them.

962drrhino said:

new washer, bleed following the pattern, might as well flush out all the old fluid with fresh while your down there. If its still soft, grab a bud and re-check for leaks. At that point I would say that you must have damaged the hose (real easy to do) during the ball joint swap.. Replace hose. Repeat. Drink beer and throw tools when you realize that your rear brakes were out of adjustment. Yeah, check the drums and make sure they are adjusted out when you bleed them.

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Sounds like a full bleed is the next step. Passenger side brake hose looked damaged.

Yeah, check the drums and make sure they are adjusted out when you bleed them.

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X2
IIRC, the drum adjusters control pedal feel. If the line's fixed and the rears are adjusted, then you may have an issue with your MC or booster.

I did take off the drums to inspect the pads, but I don't think that's it. This has been a problem ever since I started playing with the ball joints.

Also, I've had an issue with a knock every time I turn the wheel. It only seems to be happening when I'm at low speeds and either turn the wheel from left to right or from right to left.

Turns out the problem was loose lugs. The wheel/rotor were pushing the caliper back in. As for the pop, my track bar is loose right at the connection to the axle.