tbarb

SILICONE FLUID, been in there for a long time. Brake pedal very hard, I have no doubt it's fine. The brake line is vertical not horizontal, keep in mind high point in system.
I did tape it with paper towel and rubber band.

MikeM

If some of these guys would wise up and use Dot 5, they wouldn't have to have those silly (expensive) speed bleeders and rebuilding their brake cylinders because of rust every few years.

jfr's 63swc

tbarb, Missed the part where you had silicone brake fluid. However, on both of my '63s, the brake line comes off of the front side of the master cylinder horizontally for about 2" before curving down vertically. This is the section where I do not see how ALL of the fluid will remain when it is disconnected.

MikeM, I HAD to rebuild my master cylinder on one of the cars because that is condition it was in when I purchased the car and I want to drive it for the summer. And I am not interested in going thru the gymnastics of getting every drop of Dot3 out of an existing system when I am planning on scrapping the entire drum brake system and going to 4 wheel discs in the near future. Are the drums fine for my driving style? Probably, but I am changing it because I want to.

Regards,

Still learning Jon

Dave Tracy

They NEVER do!

tbarb

Jon,

This will probably start a firestorm here but I will say it anyway.

If you want to change your system to DOT 5 silicone fluid clean the M/C of all the dot3 then fill with silicone and bleed the complete system starting at the furthest wheel. Bleed until it runs purple with the silicone dot5 then move on to the next wheel. Keep checking the level in the M/C and when you finish all will be fine.

I did this on my 67 in 1990 or so and never had a problem. Oh, by the way, this procedure was recommended to me by someone that has done MANY this way and never had any issues.

On my 63 car the system lines were all new and I used the silicone dot5 from the start.

MikeM

I've done this on two cars and on a third one, half the system was new, half old and I used the Dot 5 to flush out the Dot 3. Varying numbers of years ago, depending on the car but I haven't touched the brake system in any of these cars since Except for swapping out a master cylinder on my '63 which had a worn out bore (probably from too much honing), causing a low pedal.

I believe it's important to start with a system that is free of rust, corrosion and sludge but it it's in that condition, you need a complete re-do anyway.

I believe that little bit of air that might be trapped in the horizintal portion of the line likely bleeds out back up through the port in the MC. Don't know for sure as I don't have X-Ray vision.

MOXIE62

Maybe it worked for some of you but not for me. Someone forgot to give me the magical words you said to keep the fluid in while you connect the line to cylinder. But it was not a complete lost. At least I know the cylinder works and does not leak. Back to bleeding each wheel.

GTOguy

I've bench bled 100's of master cylinders, single and dual, over the years and have installed them without bleeding the service brakes at the wheels. The trick is to let the master outlet ports flow a little during the install. No air enters the line if you just disconnect it and leave it be. No air will enter the brake lines, so bleeding at the wheels is not needed. On the odd occasion, you can end up with a soft pedal, which means air got in. This is usually due to inattention or inexperience. In that case, a push on the pedal while cracking the outlet line on the master will purge the small air bubble. If that fails, last resort is bleeding all four wheels. I can get by probably 95 times out of 100 without all that mess, though, simply by installing a PROPERLY bench- bled master.

Frankie the Fink

You'll go through a bit of DOT5, but I see no reason that shouldn't work perfectly

64luke

Love the dot 5 on my chevelle, years since I had a stuck caliper after the winter siesta.