I am starting to tune up a car that hasent been running in some time... I saw the resivor for the brakes today and its bone dry. My grandpa stored this car like 10 years ago and it seems like he drained alot of the fluids such as the brake fluid and gas. Im use to working disc brakes... is is bleeding the brakes the same with the drum brakes on this car??? its a 1962 olds 98. Thanks!!!

 

Simpler. You have a single chamber master cylinder so you'll have to be careful not to let it run dry again while you're bleeding.

Fill the master cylinder. Then crack the bleeder screws at each wheel and let the system gravity drain to all four wheels. Keep the m/c topped off as this may take a while.

Once you see evidence of fluid at the wheels, fill the m/c again and close all bleeder screws but the right rear. Bleed that one first as it's farthest from the m/c.

Then bleed system normally at all four wheels with engine OFF until you have clear fluid at all four wheels and a consistently firm pedal. Keep the m/c topped off while you do this.

Once system is full and all air bled out, if the pedal falls away under steady pressure system has a leak, either at the wheel cylinders or in the master cylinder itself. If it's sat dry all these years, I'd expect at least a rebuild on the hydraulics.

NAPA is a good common source for brake parts for these old cars if you end up needing any.

 

ok thank you very much!!!!

 

Yeah, there's a decent chance you'll need a master cylinder and / or wheel cylinders by the time all is said and done, but it's definitely worth it to see if you can get it all working without any new parts.

You should consider coverting to dual master at some point in the future, for an extra margin of safety.

- Eric

 

I went through this with my 62 (which had been sitting for 30 years). I ended up rebuilding or replacing every rubber part in the brake system. Naturally I did NOT do this all at once, so I ended up getting really good at bleeding the brakes...

Fortunately, I have a pneumatic vacuum brake bleeder, so it's really easy to bleed the brakes.

 

if you find that you need to rebuild the wheel cylinders, i found that NAPA has wheel cylinder rebuild kits for this car. it is the only place i found them other than mail order stuff.

 

ok ill check out napa for the brake parts when the time comes which im pretty sure it will....Im thinking that all that rubber is shot but well see i guess....Ive got a good helper to sit in the car while i bleed the brakes... what a fun job that is...