No stopping power, 84 Camaro Z28. Brake light on dash and thats about all I have to go off of.

New part lists -
Rear drums completely new inc cylinders
All brake rubber hoses (rear, 2x front)
Master cylinder
Brake booster

Lines can be bled and have been - vac guage put on hose, good. Ebrake doesnt work, brake pedal goes straight to the floor. Where do I go from here? I was thinking just replace the whole front but the rear drums dont even work.

 

1. Did you "bench bleed" the master cyl BEFORE you put it on?

2. Did you adjust the rear shoes up until it's all butt impossible to put the drums on over them?

The MC is at such an extreme angle in these cars that air WILL get trapped at the front ends of the 2 chambers ABOVE the line fittings. This means that any air in the MC will go there and STAY THERE FOREVER because it CANNOT escape because it's at the very top, above the fittings, and can't somehow descend to the fittings on its own. And then THIS means that you can bleed the system FOREVER and that air will NEVER be purged. You can run a gallon of fluid through it every single day for years, and twice every Sunday just for good measure, and that air will STLL be there. You MUST "bench bleed" it BEFORE putting it on the car. Which is, clamp it level in a vise or something, and bleed it in THAT position, in which the fitting IS at the highest point, so that the air CAN get out. Then put it on the car while not allowing the fluid to run out. They often supply little plastic fittings with clear plastic hoses along with new MCs, that you can put into the fittings, which once you're done "bench bleeding" and get it installed, THEN AND ONLY THEN you remove the plastic things and hook the lines up. THEN, since the MC will be free of air, you can bleed the rest of the system the normal way, and get an air-free system.

The rear shoes can be quite a ways away from the drums when installed, depending on how worn the drums are and how you put them together (with the threaded adjuster things all the way in for example). In this state they can be so far from the drums that it's impossible for the system to move enough fluid to ever make them touch the drums, and therefore the system will never generate any pressure. The cure is, adjust the shoes out some, put the drums on, and if they're easy to slip on over the shoes, take em back off, adjust em up some more, and repeat until you can't get the drums on anymore; then back the adjusters off just barely a notch at a time until you can just barely get the drums on over them. Then, once introduced to real life, they self-adjust by driving in reverse and stopping sharply. This ***** the self-adjuster mechanism and primes it to turn the screw thing one notch, and when you let off the pedal after doing this, if the shoes were able to move far enough backwards to move the adjuster far enough to catch the next tooth on the wheel, they'll adjust up one click. You should make a point of doing this every time you drive the car: they won't necessarily adjust themselves up every time, butt they will always remain within one notch of perfect adjustment.

Not sure what "ebrake" is. People often say that, meaning a shorthand for "emergency brake" as if that is any good for stopping in emergencies which it's NOT. That's something that these cars (and all others, for that matter) don't have. All we have is the regular service brakes that you normally use to stop the car, and a PARKING brake, that will somewhat hold the car still when already stopped as long as there's not too much tendency for it to move (like a real steep hill), butt doesn't do diddly when moving even if working perfectly. Once you get the rear shoes adjusted right, it will have a MUCH better chance of working for its intended purpose of PARKING, since it can't move the shoes very far either, in the same way the range of motion of the hydraulic system is limited.

 

if the pedal goes to the floor, and its been bench bled, then 1 fo 2 things.
1 bad master cylinder
2 not bled/air in system

thats really it.
even non adjusted rear brakes should move enough that you feel something in the pedal.
going straight to floor with no resistance is a bad part, or air.

 

No one will ever do this but it's a simple test. Buy 2 plugs for the MC, remove the lines and put the plugs in. Step on the pedal, it it's hard as a rock and high the MC isn't the problem, now proceed down the line and find the problem.

 

You might need to reset your proportioning valve.