Question
Hello Dick...
I have recently rebuilt the brakes, including wheel cylinders and master cylinder on my 1965 Rambler Marlin . It has a dual master cylinder made by Bendix. The problem I am having is that I can't get fluid to pump out of the front reservor supplys fluid to the rear shoe brakes....the rear reservior feeds the front disc brakes. I have bench primed/bled the cylinder and got fluid to pump out of both
reservors but when I install the cylinder on the car it won't pump out of the front reservor. The car has power brakes and the booster seems to be working ok. The master cylinder has check valves in both outlets. I am told that some early cars of this type didn't have the check valve for the rear wheels ? The rebuild kit had new ones included and were installed. I also tried to bleed the cylinder on the car by the syphon hose method but it dodn't work . I had the cylinder bore honed and the pistons seem to be moving ok . As mentioned before, there are times when I bench bled it that fluid shot out of both outlets well. seem to have the cups installed on the pistons correctly .
I am baffled by this problem....any information and advice you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your assistance . Please respond as soon as possible.
Best Regards. Bill
AnswerI wasn't aware that the 65s had a dual master cylinder - that must have been one of the first, and the disc brakes also amaze me. Are you sure this car hasn't been modified?
Anyway, the only thing I can think of on your inability to get fluid to flow to the rear brakes is that the front brakes are solid enough that the master cylinder push rod isn't able to penetrate the cylinder far enough to get fluid to flow through to the rear brakes. You can try again by looseing the bleeder screws on the front brakes so that the pedal will go down further - this may be enough to get fluid moving through the rear lines.
I think there may also be a proportioning valve in the rear brake line to keep the rears from applying too early - this might also be preventing fluid flow to the rear brakes, but the same trick of opening the front bleeders should solve the problem.
If the car has been modified to add disc brakes, all bets are off, because I don't know what the setup is. If these are original, I stand educated again - not the first time!
Let me know what you find out about this, please.
Thanks,
Dick (it's beside the point but Dick Teague was a neighbor and personal friend before he passed away in 1996 - a truly nice man, born with gasoline in his blood, as he always said. As you no doubt know, he was responsible for the original Tarpon - the original design which later became the Marlin.)
