Bleeding Brakes! Up-date.

[oxford]

Bleeding Brakes! Update.

Hi everyone
thanks for all the advice on my brake problem. (previous post) I now appear to have some brakes!!
I disconnected the rear pipe from the union with the brake light switch and plugged the hole with a bolt. That just left the fronts. Bled them but still didn't have any brakes.
I wound the drums up full on the fronts. That didn't seem to help. By that stage I really though I must have a bad MC. Then I discovered that one of the pins on a front shoe had bent so the snail cam wasn't doing anything. I fixed that and could lock the brakes up. Incidentally, the shoes didn't have the pins originally. I had to weld them on. I think that would have made adjustment impossible for the PO.
Anyway, I'm rambling now.
I reconnected the rears and bled again. (the brakes, not me)I discovered that if I pumped the pedal I could get brake: a good sign! Air in the system! So, I pumped them up, blocked the pedal down with a piece of timber and left it for a couple of days. Then bled again. This seemed to get more air out of the system. Then I bled again and again and again, all with pressure from my compressor. Eventually the pedal came up. It seemed that most of the air was released from the rear L/H bleeder.

Now I have brakes! The pedal still has travel but the brakes work before it hardens up. I haven't driven on the road, just up the drive, but they do work.
So, after much head scratching it would seem that getting all the air out of Big Healey brakes is difficult and I suspect there is still some there. You just have to bleed and bleed and bleed. . .
thanks again for all the advice.
Matthew