Trials and tribulations....
Prior to starting the engine I insist on having functional clutch and brake hydraulics, being any car with a running engine needs to have brakes as a matter of safety. I was able to push fluid through the clutch hydraulic system without any major issue and successfully bled the air from it.... the brakes were a whole different issue.
I had minimal output from the master cylinder on the front (V) and absolutely nothing on the rear (H) I did the two man pump method, and brought a power bleeder into the mix but even at 15psi absolutely nothing was coming out of the rear cylinder of the master. I ended up pulling the thing off the car and split it open on the bench to determine why it was being such a pain.
What I found is that it was badly rusted on the forward valving for the rear brake output. Almost 2 years ago I let this thing eat in the ultrasonic cleaner at work and I had thought I fully blew all water out of it and had thoroughly lubricated it with brake fluid for storage until it was needed.... well I didn't. Turns out the forward cylinder has some valving mechanism in it that trapped what was most likely a small amount of water and it just sat there eating for the last 2 some odd years.
I tried to buy it new but found the aluminum Girling master was NLA. I ordered a reman unit from Centric but what showed up was a early steel ATE.... fuck it then....
I picked up a clean used cylinder from a parts car and dropped it in the ultrasonic machine at work, then immediately disassembled it for assessment.
The guts of this one are squeaky clean and the seals look like new.
I ended up loading up the guts of the spare cylinder into my nicely vapor honed cylinder and got it back on the car. I was quickly able to get fluid to the brake calipers with good volume and found again... still no fluid to the rear... hmm...
I cracked the inlet fitting to the ABS pump and found I now had fluid there, however no fluid was coming from the outlet. I replace the outlet pipe with custom bent section of tubing going into a coke bottle so I could see ANY output, and again even under 15psi of power bleeder and a pedal pump assist nothing passed through the pump on its rear valve. A quick overview of the electrical diagram showed me it would be reasonably easy to manually cycle the pump motor and each solenoid valve. I did so with the power bleeder still hooked up and after a few cycles the sticking rear valve freed up and it began to shit yucky fluid into the bottle. Once the fluid ran clear I put it all back together and like magic... now I have fluid at the rear calipers.
That catches us up to last night, and today I started out by running out to get 5gal of premium fuel to wet the fuel tank. I cranked the engine until the oil can lamp went out, and then proceeded to add fuel to the tank. I jumped the fuel pump relay on the firewall and didn't hear anything in the quiet garage.... I left the jumper attached and pulled up the access cover to inspect. Using the DMM I verified power/ground present at the connector yet the fuel pump doesn't run.... for fucks sake. I tried some percussive agitation to see if it would buzz to life.. but alas no go. Brand new VDO pump ($585 list) and its fucking dead out of the gate... fantastic.
I'll have a new pump to replace it tomorrow and hopefully I can get it back together and fired up soon.
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