2001 Saturn SL1 soft brake pedal

The petal was fine before rebuilding the calipers.

. And I have drum brakes on the back.

Thanks. I do not have ABS. I've rebuilt calipers in the past and never had a problem. However, since the only thing I've changed are the calipers I may take your advice and just go ahead and replace them with re-manufactured calipers.

To bleed the brakes, I had another person help by holding pressure on the brake pedal while I opened the bleeder to release air and fluid. Had the other person continue to hold pressure on the pedal until I closed the bleeder. Once the bleeder was closed, had the other person release the brake pedal and re-apply pressure to the brake pedal and I repeated the bleed by opening and re-closing the bleeder valve. Continued to repeat this process until I had good fluid flow with no evidence of air in the fluid. Did this process on both front calipers multiple times. I also tired the gravity process when the two person method wasn't getting good results.

No, I did not bleed the rear brakes at all. The front brakes were bled left front and then right front. Sorry, yes, the bleeders are on the top of the calipers.

Update - purchased a vacuum type brake bleeder and re-bled the front calipers. The left bled fluid just fine, no air in the collection cup. The right side however was different story. Couldn't get the right side to produce any fluid, only bubbles. Took the caliper off again and popped the piston out, visually checked the seal, reassembled the piston into the caliper and put the caliper back on the car, cleaned the copper washer, the connection boss and the attaching fitting before connecting the line to the caliper but no change. All I could get still was bubbles. So, I'm off to buy a new caliper.

OK, I'm back on this project. Here's what's been accomplished to date. New left and right calipers, new left and right front brake hoses, new left front hard line between left front hose and master cylinder (couldn't break the hard line nut free from the hose fitting), new left and right rear wheel cylinders along with new shoes, springs, and drums. All new copper washers on all four banjo bolts at the calipers and wheel cylinders. Bled the right rear, left rear, right front and then the left front. Used a suction type break bleeder and could see when the air was clear of the line and then went a good deal past the last bubble just to be sure I had all the air. Still when I start the engine, the brake pedal goes almost all the way to the floor. Is it possible something happened to the master cylinder? That's about the only part that I haven't replaced yet.

When I put the drums back on, I adjusted the self adjuster until the drum would just barely fit over the shoes

Yes. I can pump up the brake pedal and get a good firm brake pedal with the engine off but as soon as I turn the engine on, the pedal goes almost to the floor, not all the way, but to within an inch of the floor. I'm going to recheck the rear adjustment, they were rubbing the drums when I put them back on, but the shoes may have seated themselves when I applied pedal pressure. After that, I'm going to tackle the master cylinder. I picked one from AZ but it didn't include the bench bleeding parts. This all started when I opened the lines to rebuild the calipers. I'm wondering if my assistant pushed too hard on the brake pedal when I initially bled the brakes and somehow damaged a seal in the MC. Well thanks for your continued help. This has been a real challenge for what should be a fairly simple system.

Well I certainty feel like the fool! I think I was chasing a ghost. I went back and re-adjusted the back shoes out to the drums and then rechecked the brake pedal with no significant change in pedal travel. So I went and checked another GM product that I own and the pedal seemed to travel about the same distance. So I put the wheels back on and took it for a test drive. Seems like a near normal pedal when driving. Guess I was just expecting something different. Good news is that I now have an almost completely new brake system on a 13 year old car. Thanks for your help!

Same car, same year, same problem. My wife's front brakes started to grind, I so replaced the front rotors and pads. When I turned the car on and pumped the brake up, it got nice and tight and then lost pressure. I got out of the car and saw a leak in both of the lines leading to the rear of the vehicle in the very same spots. The car was bought and driven in snowy upstate NY so there was a lot of salt that had accumulated at this spot on the lines due to a bracket. I removed a 4 inch section from both of the lines and had some 3/16in line from an old job, which happens to be the correct size, and put them on with compression unions. I'm sure I'll get a talking to about piecing together lines instead of replacing the entire lines, but I'm trying to be within my means I guess.

I got them pieced together and can't find any sign of a leak anywhere. I have bled and bled and bled all 4 lines in the proper sequence, but I just can't get a stiff brake pedal. It just goes straight to the floor without resistance. Plenty of fluid. I've caught every drop as it comes out of the bleeders and it went from a dark grey to extremely clear. There appears to still be air in the lines. I'm going to hook a large syringe and some tubing up to each bleeder and attempt to slowly vacuum each line. Sometimes I feel like I'm getting air in somewhere, because it doesn't seem possible to have that much in there. And I have no noticeable leaks. Maybe I blew a seal in the master cylinder. How can I test to see if I damaged that? I also do not have ABS. I had great pedal until I did this work.