How do I get the rear brakes to bleed?

Tiny
MITHRAND
  • MEMBER
  • 1996 CHEVROLET SILVERADO
  • 5.7L
  • V8
  • 4WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 250,000 MILES
My rear wheel cylinder went out causing master cylinder to go dry. I replaced the master which I bench bled rear wheel cylinder, shoes, drums, and hardware on both rears. I have tried to use a vacuum pump to bleed the rear brakes. No fluid came through. I tried both pulling a vacuum and then opening the bleeder and closing before losing vacuum and then repeating the process and tried opening the bleeder and pulling continuous vacuum neither method ever produced any fluid. I also tried to just let it gravity bleed no luck there either. Bought a scanner that claimed it could auto-bleed anti-lock brakes on most vehicles sadly my truck is not supported by that scanner.
Sunday, October 23rd, 2022 AT 8:11 PM

2 Replies

Tiny
KEN L
  • MASTER CERTIFIED MECHANIC
  • 47,722 POSTS
Does this truck have ABS? If so, the valves in the ABS controller need to be opened while bleeding. If there is no air the system, make sure the brake shoes are correctly adjusted because if not the brake pedal will go to the floor.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-bleed-or-flush-a-car-brake-system

And this video shows it as well:

https://youtu.be/nQRnKyVyMuQ

This guide may help too:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/brake-pedal-goes-to-the-floor

Please go over these guides and report back.

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Monday, October 24th, 2022 AT 11:44 AM
Tiny
MITHRAND
  • MEMBER
  • 12 POSTS
As I said in the description I bought a scanner that was supposed to auto-bleed the anti-lock brakes. So, yes, it has anti-lock brakes. Why would you ask that question when I stated it in the description? Also, it is not about the pedal going to the floor, it was about not able to get fluid to the rear wheels. The pedal does not go to the floor because it will stop on the front brakes. Also, yes there is air in the system as I said it ran the master cylinder dry. Two of the guides talked about using a scanner but no one said if that scanner will work on my vehicle I mentioned I already tried one scanner and it did not work with my vehicle, so those videos were of no use. As for the third guide I will have to read it again as I did not see anything about how to get the air out of the ABS module. I already know it should be done with a scanner, but it would be nice if someone could say yes, this scanner will work on your vehicle instead of well it works on most cars or if someone knew a way to get the air out without the scanner. I have seen videos of newer vehicles and they have bleeders on the ABS module mine does not. Is there a way to get the anti-lock brake light to flash the code numbers like we did with the first obd systems? Since the only thing I have not replaced is the ABS module I have a feeling that maybe it is malfunctioning and that is why I cannot get fluid to the rear wheels. Though that is an expensive part to just guess if it is bad or not.
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Monday, October 24th, 2022 AT 11:17 PM

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