maybe - finishin the brakes are next on my list after I finish the rebuild

 

Rube -- please place the "i'm not a mechanic" in your signature -- you put it in every post.

Just funnin'

As for brake pedal travel -- yeah, pedals go down pretty far on my S cars. Always have. It's when you have no resistance or the resistance level changes that I'd be worried....

 

LOL Derf. I guess I didn't have mine long enough to realize what you're referring to about the pedal travel.

 

Final Update:

Unfortunately, pain flared up in my knee from a problem in my younger days and I was unable to continue working on the car - $440 dollars later my mechanic fixed the brakes - along with installing new pads and rotors.

I made two misdiagnosis and one bad assumption:
1) Assuming that the problem was the Master Cylinder -a $50 dollar mistake
2) Wet wheel cylinders were the problem - While they probably needed to be replaced - it did not contribute to the excessive pedal travel problem
3) Not expecting that a caliper bleeder port could be so plugged it could resist significant brake pedal pressure.

When I picked up the car, my mechanic explained to me that there were two problems:
1) Plugged bleeder valve
Removing the caliper bleeder valve and other contaminants allowed the brake fluid to flow

2) Caliper pins were frozen
Excessive wear on the right front inner pad indicated (and later confirmed) frozen caliper pins.

While I was disappointed to have to pay the extra charges to have the work done, I was appreciative that my mechanic was there to get the job done when I could not and explain what the problem was.

In my younger days I had better diagnostic skills - just another sign I'm getting old

Thanks for all your help folks.

 

Age doesn't have anything to do with it. I'm almost 56 and if you go back to post #8, you'll see that I mentioned guide pins along with the caliper. I never suspected a clogged bleeder valve though. I thought you successfully bled all four brakes.

 

A problem that can develop time and especially if you live in a rust belt (winter, snow, rain and road salt) the brake lined can get very rusty internally as well as externally.
If you have a lot of rust on the brake lines AND brake fluid is not coming out of the wheel cylinder when you bleed the brakes it is very possible the inside of the rusty line is causing the problem.
You may be able to get some temporary relieve by forcing the obstructions, if you can out the end of the line.
But to do that you need to be able to disconnect the brake line from the Wheel Cylinder mounted on the backing plate if drum brakes or the Caliper if disk brakes.
However if the lines are very rusty there is a real probability of breaking the lines trying to unscrew the fastener.
This reverts back to basic rusty car repairs, heat (propane torch) and bee's wax (bees wax will no burn) or penetrating oil ( it does burn and make huge clouds of smoke) and using a wire brush chucked into your drill to clean off the lines so things can turn, keeping in mind brake fluid burns (yes that gets exciting) and brake fluid is also anhydrous which means it sucks moisture out of the air and gets it into the brake fluid which rusts the inside of the line.
Now if you can do all of this with out breaking a brake line, setting the car on fire, setting the garage on fire or setting your pants on fire, you might get all of the line to pass fluid through them. This may or may not fix the problem you have of pedal pressure, but you are not going to fix a pedal pressure problem until you can get all four wheel brakes to work and they are not going to work until brake fluid can get to them.

 

He got it fixed, UnclJohn. He just had to pay someone else to do it.

 

Thanks, I didn't see that. Oh well. Just a bit sensitive on brakes this year. Don't know why but I had to change 3 master cylinders on cars sitting in the driveway this year. I had not driven them much lately and the heat killed them. I dunno, it seems that every now and then rubber takes a change in technology and it does not work out right. All I can say in doing that is that I am glad I build an electric motor powered vacuum brake bleeding tool a few years back. It sits quietly in a box unused and then I get a flurry of use out of it. And it is not uncommon to see a plugged bleeder. Oh well.