Brake help please

[sswitzke]

I'll say it first, I'm an idiot. When bleeding brakes, you hold the pedal down then open the bleeder, then close it and then release the pedal?

[spatz]

that is the correct way, with the master filled and the cap on to prevent spills.. also if by yourself, you can fill the master, leave the cap off and open the farthest bleeder from the cylinder and let it gravity bleed untill a good flow w/o bubbles comes out, close the bleeder and go to the next, while monitering the fluid level in the master. when done with the bleeding, fill master, cap it off and pump the brakes a couple of times. Then repeat gravity bleeding until no more bubbles appear.

[Mike J]

yeah, pump up the pedal 4-5 times and hold down- have someone open bleeder, let bubbles out, close bleeder, repeat process til you get nothing but solid fluid, no air- and start farthest from the master cylinder- RR, LR, RF, LF

[cdowns]

theres a pin on the prop valve that needs to b clamped to properly bleed brakes//people without service manuals dont know about that step

[Sinister]

I use a one man brake bleeder kit you can get at an auto parts place or Harbor Freight for like $5. It's a little bottle with tubing and a magnet on it. You open the bleeder , hook it up, stick the bottle to the truck above the bleeder, pump until there's fluid in the bottle, close the bleeder and your done.

[sswitzke]

ok bleed the brakes no air in the line. Pedal still goes to the floor very little to no pressure on the rear wheel cylinders. Any ideas?

[Dark Knight]

If your pedal sinks to the floor, then it's most likely a bad master cylinder.

[lolife99]

Let's go back to the beginning.
What started all of this brake bleeding?

Did you change something?
Did the brakes just go out?
Replace a wheel cylinder?

We need the whole story.

[sswitzke]

When I bought the truck you touch the brakes it would put you into the front glass, check the brakes and they were all cracked down the middle. Front drums looked good back two were junk. changed brakes all around two new rear drums. Took one side apart replace brakes move to the otherside. Put the wheels back on try to move truck and the pedal goes to floor barley stopping truck, did the reverse brake a couple of times well dozens of times. Checked fluid rear wheel was empty added fluid and still nothing so I tried bleeding the brake lines.

[lolife99]

Was the master cylinder full prior to changing the brake shoes?
The fluid doesn't get out of the M/C by itself.
You have a broken steel line, bad wheel cylinder or bad M/C.
When you did the rear brake shoe replacement,... was it really wet under the brake drum?