we recently took our 72 dart swinger to the garage to have the front end rebuilt, tie rods bearings ect. upon doing so the mechanic told us that the back brake lines were bad and in need of changing. we decided that we could do this on our own seeing how my father had a duster twister when he was my age (24) and he essentially performed the same job on that car. upon replacing the right rear brake line we started to bleed them and we popped the other rear line, so we changed that one as well and ever since we cant get a pedal at all, bleed them and bleed them and then pump it up so the pedal stiffen ups the let off the pedal and apply preddure again it goes all the way to the floor, we should still have front brakes right? we never touched those lines we have also put about 2 bottles of fluid through the lines, any thoughts or ideas?

 

Something is open (a bleeder) or line connection not tight or you have some air in the lines...which sounds doubtful gien how many times you've bled them. I'd re-trace your traks and make sure everything is tight. Did you change wheel cylinders? If so, is it leaking?

 

Did you bleed the whole system or just the rear?
If you pump the brakes up and keep pressure on the pedal,does it stay up or bleed down?

 

I too feel that you still have air in the system. Start by checking for leaks, then be sure all your fittings are tight. Get yourself 4 small mason jars and 4 pieces of hose,small enough to fit over the bleeder screws, clear hose is preferable so you can see the fluid thru it. Place the hoses over the bleaders and into the jars, one at each wheel, put enough fresh fluid into each jar to submerge the end of the hose. Pop the M/C top and open all 4 bleeders let the thing gravity bleed till the M/C is half full (or half empty if you're a pessimist). Refill the M/C and install the cover, close all the bleeders starting with the one nearest the M/C (left front). Proceed to blead the wheels again the regular way starting with the furthest from the M/C (right rear) and working back to the left front. Check and top off the M/C after each wheel and that should fix you right up unless the M/C is bypassing ( pedal fades under constant pressure). Hope this helps you some.

 

we didnt bleed the front because we never cracked the front lines, thats whats weird we should still have something of a pedal right? we didnt touch the front and if the proportionary valve(if thats what its called) worked and shut the back brakes of then we should still have some pressure there, we also ordered a new master cylinder but dont want to change it if it isnt bad you know, we now have unhooked the lines from the m/c and bled that and we did get a couple air bubbles out of the m/c but have yet to finish bleeding the lines

 

Once you open any of the lines you must bleed the entire system. The instructions I wrote above are the most reliable way to do this without access to a power bleeder. Let us know how it works. As long as you can get a pedal,and it is not fading, the M/C probably doesn't need to be replaced.

 

thanks for the help i will give it a try as soon as i have a day off