I have brakes, and then I dont.

[Whitetrashwonderboy]

Hello everyone, I'm having brake issues. About 2 weeks ago I changed the drums, bearings, wheel cylinders, shoes and all the little springs. When I went to bleed them I couldn't get fluid out of the back passenger side. I then removed the master cylinder and made sure it was pumping fluid out of both ports. I bench bled it and reinstalled it but still no fluid to the back passenger. Next I changed out the proportioning valve with one off of an 89 Festiva and behold there was then fluid to all 4 wheels, great! After bleeding the ever loving hell out of everything again I took the car on a test drive and had nice full pedal, until I didn't. Now the brakes sporadically go in and out at random. Ill be driving along and hit the brakes and the pedal will go to the floor with minimal effort, I'll let off it and hit it again and then have full pedal like I'm supposed to. I've made sure everything is tight, Ive bled everything again. I'm out of ideas at this point and tempted to cut the floorboards out and start doing like the Flintstones!

[Rick the Quick]

I would put my money on a new master cylinder. It sounds like it is bypassing internally. You wont see any fluid leaking out nor will the fluid level drop in the reservoir.

[ryanprins13]

I agree. I think the valve was the problem at first, but the piston in the master cylinder normally doesnt travel very far. Junk can get built up in the cylinder bore and the seal gets old. When you go to bleed brakes in the car and push the pedal all the way down the cylinder travels way further.
Same as when bench bleeding. Very likely the seal in there got scored up and sometimes bypasses, sometimes doesnt.

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[Whitetrashwonderboy]

Thank you both! I'll get on getting one of those a.s.a.p and let you know what I come up with

[Studebaker]

Go ahead and buy the MC with the resavor. Changing them over is not worth the effort.

[ricko1966]

Be careful getting a reservoir at the same time, Make sure it has the level sensor,the one I bought did not.In a perfect world we do not need the level sensor,unfortunatley we do not live in a perfect world.

Go ahead and buy the MC with the resavor. Changing them over is not worth the effort.

[Whitetrashwonderboy]

Got the new master cylinder (with resivour and sensor) and everything is working as it should now! My brake light is staying on now though for some reason. Everything seems fine though. Thank you all for your helpful input and thank my ol lady for who is entirely done with pumping and holding the brake pedal

[WmWatt]

The brake light will come on if the fluid is low in the reservoir, or if the hand brake is on, or both.

[Whitetrashwonderboy]

Turns out my parking brake light issue is caused by my ignition switch acting up. It wants to stick a little towards the start position. I turn it back a little and the light goes off