Brake Bleeding

I did my homework, read all the posts on this, looked at the pictures, went to NAPA and got parts to build the can w/hose, bought a gallon of brake fluid. I took off the cap on top of the resivoir, hooked the hose up to the bleed valve, loosened the valve and pumped. Nothing, pumped some more, no bubbles and no fluid. Looked into resivoir and pushed on brake pedal, yup , now have fluid all over the floor. Is there another valve or something that I need to open to be able to pump the fluid upstream?

specs as follows: 1958 PA-18A, cleveland double puck brakes, North River brake booster.

thanks

bob

Maybe the bleeder is clogged? Might want to check that.

Tim

I'm not familar with North River boosters.
Check to make sure the pump is pumping fluid at some pressure. Hold finger on outlet and pump to see if you can squirt fluid.
Make sure you do not have the parking brake applied

thanks for the tips so far:

parking brake was off , can does pump as i used it to squirt fluid into the top of the resivoir before i quit. nipples had a little plastic cap on them so you would think they might not be plugged, but will check that again.

my education continues.

bob

Make sure the bleeder is open enough. Open until it leaks out, making sure it is clean & clear. Then hook-up the filled hose. The bleeder can be fully opened then. Should pump through. I'd guess you bleeder is plugged or not fully open causing a restriction.

I could never get enough pressure using an oil can to bleed my brakes. I went to a small weed sprayer unit. I had North Rivers and I left the cap on the reservoir when I was bleeding alone. Open the caliper valve and pump up pressure. The system would hold pressure long enough to go inside and slowly open the cap until I got just a bit of fluid. Close cap, then close bleeder valve on caliper. Awesome brakes every time.

I had North River brakes in my PA-12. As I am sure you know it is very important to properly bleed these units as they have essentially no resevoir. Any air and you have soft brakes. I probably had to bleed the brakes a half a dozen times to finally get them clean. I used an oil can with a bit of clear plastice hose. As mentioned above, make certain the bleeder is fully open. I also forced a piece of tubing into the top of the North River cylinder so that it sealed, I a had to modify slightly with electrical tape to properly seal. Make certain that no tape or other foreign matter gets into the brake system while berforming this process. I then placed the other end of the upper hose in a jar with a enough brake fluid in the jar to cover the end of the plastice tubing. I then pumped and pumped and pumped until the fluid was clear of air bubble. Note that this was proabably close to a cup of brake fluid later. After going through this process, I never had any further problems.

I have found that 5606 congeals really well if left alone for a long time. It took a lot of flushing and braking to get the old Stinson to work real good. Next time I am completely cleaning the system and going to Mil Std Dot 5. Once a system is working well, almost any oil can will fill the entire system from the bottom. That's true of any good hydraulic fluid.