J- so I disconnected the stop switch at the combo valve under the MC and sure enough the brake light went out. So it is sounding like by your recommendations that it is the MC that went bad. I have a new raybestos already on hand. You think I should swap in a new reman booster while I'm at it or just the MC? My orileys booster is only about 6 months old

Replace the alternator......

did it last night. All is good for the camry. Thnx

Slow down a bit. If yer made of money, just send me a bunch.

What we know is the balance switch has been set because of an imbalance in the system. It could have happened when bleeding and be nothing. It could be a warped rotor setting a caliper too far back, or a bad rear adjuster letting the cylinder open up too far, or a bad MC. It has nothing to do at all with the booster.

The pedal going down too far on the first stroke could be caused by all the above causes as well.

There's a procedure to reset the balance valve to center. I don't have time to look it up right now. Anyone with a FSM can look it up. I have about an hour of daylight to change out a radiator. Then you need to check that the rear brakes don't let off too far, and check that the rotors aren't warped. Also you need to be sure all air is bled out of the system.

If all that is true, and the pedal mashes to the floor on the first stroke, it's probably an internal fault in the MC.

The switch on the combination valve is meant to set if the pressures between the front and the rear brake circuits are widely disparate. That indicates total failure in one of the circuits, and the lamp is to encourage you to get service to fix it.

Thanks, J. I believe after some serious thought about this I am 80% positive I am going to raise the white flag and bow down to the pros. When I replaced my shoes, hardware, seals and all pieces to get new rear brakes that took me all day and into the night. I took a short cut and bypassed having the drums machined even when I noticed a slight raise within the drum made from the 2 1/2" shoes. I just threw 3" shoes in there and hoped for the best. Live and learn.

Just wanna add that I had been warned, but because of the combo of timing and stubbornness, I believe my brakes are in the condition they are currently because something is going on with those shoes. Hearing metal scraping at brake application. My goal is to get new shoes and possibly drums, and from there re diagnose the MC to see if that's still proving faults. Thanks for the help, all

The I should have done......always bites me[laugh] I it doesn't malfunction I worry about it for what seems like forever.[duhhh]

Man, look at the grammar/misspellings!!!

Just picking up the baton. [laugh]

[laugh]

The auto correcting on both my Android and Apple devices absolutely murder my text messages and post, it will either insert periods after every word or completely change the word where it doesn't even mean the same, I usually have to check and correct the message with every post, they are all on the weakest setting.
BTW this message was also corrected.

Back to the issue at hand.
Jim

:thumbsup:

Augie, did you ever figure out what the noise coming from the rear brakes was? and when you changed the shoes did you replace the wheel cylinders. and hardware.

no still stumped. Been thru 3 quarts of dot 3 and tried all methods of bleeding short of mechanical pressure type bleeding. Gravity, njt's way, speed bleeders, etc. also the method we discussed about proportioning valve. I disconnected the lines coming out of the MC cause I could not crack open the lines on top of the proportioning valve coming from the MC. That is still correct? Or should I have cracked the lines at the bottom heading to the brakes from that valve? Starting to think it may be my wheel cylinders that gave out, which caused that brake grabbing

A wheel cylinder works best for me to center the balance( proportioning) valve. I don't think that is the problem though (other than the light) When I have had that problem I had good pedal pressure but just front or rear brakes (I don't remember which)

Could you have got the adjusters (star wheels) swapped. If so the they will loosen instead of tightening up the brake adjustment.
Try adjusting them up manually and see what happens.

I really don't think there is air in the line after all the bleeding you have done.

Mark,I must have said that to myself a thousand times, but my problems bleeding completely went away when I converted to rear disks. I know that is not an option for everyone, but I think that, in my case at least, it proves that the problem bleeding is in the rear drums. It took a new bendix mc to get the abs light to go off, but now the brakes work like every other vehicle I have ever owned. Take it for what it's worth, but they bleed completely normally...Mark