I use the same type of home made pressure bleeder with great success. I have to ask a stupid question. You are flipping the plate around to pressurize each chamber separately, correct? The fitting should go over one chamber for the front brakes, and then flip it around to cover the other chamber for the rear brakes.
Exactly TA DAD! Then you don’t have to bother your coworkers to pump brakes for you all time. I don’t understand people that are so close minded. I have found that physics work all the time not just some of the time. Thanks for backing me up on that
Yeah , you can get a system dripping fluid really running fluid out and close the bleeders for a few minutes and when you go back and crack them open you will see the air at the bleeder. All on it's own. With that said getting the air out of a system can be a bitch.
I first found out about gravity bleeding when I worked at a Lincoln/Mercury dealership in 1970. The guy who did the most brake jobs would crack the bleeders as he finished a wheel end. That's back when we actually rebuilt calipers and wheel cylinders. He would ocassionally check to see the master was full. He was the only guy that didn't get another mechanic to pump the brakes for him.
Gravity bleeding works, maybe you don't want to believe in it but that doesn't make it wrong.... Show me actual documented information that a pressure differential valve blocks fluid flow, so far no one has been able to. Maybe that comes from the "spit and wittle club". If they did there would be no need for a tandem master cylinder. If it has a combination valve that includes a metering valve then that explains why there is no fluid to the front, hold the metering valve open while you bleed.
If the bleed cap or gasket is slotted, both chambers will be filled and pressurized without having to flip the cap.
Gravity bleeding does work as long as the master cylinder is above the wheel cylinders. Of course the last time I said that a certain member called me a "Hack Mechanic"...
After alot of head scratching and measuring, and a few new words, it comes back to the old saying, "just because its new doesn't mean it is good". The master had a chunk of crap lodged in it and wasnt letting plunger work properly. they are now bled and life is good
Glad you got it sorted out! Rods might be the same length, but sometimes the piston recess in the new master the same depth. I've found brake masters sometimes vary in the depth of the recess where the rod sits, and it causes issues like you're having. Good that wasn't your issue.
The Jalopy Journal
