No fluid to rear brakes...

[frednoah]

Copy of post from my project thread, figured it might get more response as a separate post...

First up on the list of things to do: BRAKES

Truck had power brakes, and no where near enough vacuum to run them. Pedal was low and very hard. I decided to convert to manual. I bought a 1" bore master and fabbed a new push rod.

Bent a dozen or so brake lines replacing the front one I kinked relocating it. Finally got one I liked, and went to bleed the brakes. Fronts bled ok, I've got some stopping power now. Can't get a drop of anything out of the rear bleeders.

I've got no idea what the condition of the system is, I have only had the truck a few weeks. I did a search for "no fluid to rear brakes" and the results point to a stuck proportioning valve.

I've got a valve below my master, but I don't think it's a proportioning valve. My truck has 4 wheel drums, so what does that valve do? Could it be stuck like a proportioning valve causing me to lose the fluid flow to the back brakes?

My other suspect is the rubber hose ahead of the T out back. It looks newer than most of the other rubber under the truck, so I assumed at first it should be ok.

I drove the truck along the back roads to park it at my mother in laws house while i figure things out. Pedal goes almost to the floor on the first push, but pumping them 2-3 more times gets me enough pressure to stop the truck in about a 1/4 mile.

I bench bled the master before it went on the truck. I don't want to pull that valve off unless getting it fixed will allow me to bleed the rears and move on from there with any needed repairs.

Anyone have ideas?