Hi, All. Long time, no post! Not since I've sold my Challenger in 2014! In any case, I need help with a brake issue on my '87 Dakota.

The truck doesn't get driven much, I've had it 8 years and put 10,000 miles on it in that time. It has been trouble free for 8 years until now. I went out a few weeks ago to take it around the block and noticed that the brake pedal went to the floor. When I started it up, the brake light was on until I pumped it a bit. As I drove around the block, each time I stopped, I had to pump the brakes to make the brake light go out. I assumed the master cylinder had bit the dust so I replaced it. After replacing it, I cannot get the brakes to bleed. Using a vacuum bleeder, no matter how many times I pull a vacuum and crack the bleeder, there's tons of air coming out. I literally spent an hour just on the fronts trying to get the air out. Also, still have the same issue at the pedal. No brake fluid anywhere indicating any leaks and the fluid level was not low when I changed the MC. What am I missing?

Thanks!!

I'll bet you have air in the master cyl. Did you bleed the new master cylinder? Start out by bleeding that first.. I like to crack the lines and have a helper slowly push the pedal to the floor once,,then tighten the lines and keep repeating. I've seen where a line blows out and it takes a while before you see the leak...you still could have a line or a rear wheel cylinder leaking

Yep, I bled the MC prior to install. I'm assuming the entire brake system is original, no reason to think otherwise (120k miles) so I may just replace the calipers and wheel cylinders and call it a day...

Just for kicks and giggles, I would replace all the steel brake lines and all the brake hoses along with the calipers and wheel cylinders. I think probably the shoe contact points on the backing plates probably need a little attention, as well as the threads on the adjusting screws. I believe even the early Dakotas had an anti-lock system on the rear brakes, those have also been known to cause some issues after a lot of time. 10 years is a lot of time on brakes that have seen little use, I would assume not much in the system is good at this point.

I've seen a lot of brake line failure on the Dodge trucks in recent years, there is no way I would trust original 1987 brake hard lines or hoses. Gene