ChipDouglas

Having problems with my hydroboost brakes. Since I bought my '97 2500 CTD a couple years ago, the first time I would apply the brakes after the truck sat for a while the brakes would grab pretty hard and the pedal would kickback. After that fist application, brakes worked fine.

A couple months ago, I replaced the front hubs using quite a bit of effort from the power steering to break them loose. Soon after I noticed something leaking from the vacuum pump / power steering pump area. Some UV dye in the crankcase conformed that it wasn't oil so must be p/s fluid. Since it wasn't leaking real bad and the level wasn't going down I put off fixing the leak.

Last weekend after a 1 hour highway drive, I noticed I was getting considerable kickback from the brake pedal. One the trip back it seemed to get even worse to the point it was a little hard to park in my driveway. When I got out of the truck, my brake lights were stuck on - by pulling up the pedal I was able to shut them off.

I replaced the fluid in the reservoir and bled the system (lock-to-lock 25 times / pump brakes 25 times / lock-to-lock 15 times) and everything seemed fine except when I looked into the pump with a flashlight, the fluid looks to be full of bubbles. Not foaming up but not clear.

I wondering if somehow there is air getting into the system and that's what's affecting the brakes. I've read a couple dozen posts about brakes but haven't found this specific problem. Any advise would be great before I start throwing parts at it!