Cars

I have always wanted to buy broken down cars, repair them and flip them but I've never done it. It might be a means for a bit of income during the summer months but really it would just be a hobby I think. In the middle of trying to get this CB650 up and running, I had someone ask if I was interested in working on a Honda Civic. I said yes and now I'm kinda wishing I hadn't. It's rare for me to get pissy while wrenching. I did quite a bit of work to it but sometimes I need to chew on things for a while before I put 2 and 2 together and it feels like I need to hurry on this one. During the course of the front disc and rear drum brake job, the rears would not bleed. The fronts worked fine but I never tried to bleed them. A day later while having dinner with Heather at PF Changs I was thinking about the issue (while still listening to her of course). Why would fluid not get to the rear wheel cylinders? I started working on it again today.

This car has 2 lines coming off the master cylinder and they lead to the brake proportioning valve which has 4 more lines (one for reach corner coming off it). I traced the 2 lines for the rear brakes back to the PV, removed them and had someone press the pedal. No fluid moving. Then I removed a front line. Fluid moving. I automatically assumed it was a valve issue. Honda gets $150 for that thing but I scored one from the junk yard for $10. I installed it and had fluid for the rears at the valve but not at the wheel cylinders. Very inconsistent. In hindsight, I should have gone one step further and seen if both lines at the master cylinder were moving fluid. After several hours of trying to bleed the brakes and scratching my head I began to look at the master cylinder. Brakes not wanting to "pump up" is usually a sign of a bad master cylinder but I wanted to be sure. I removed one of the lines off the master cylinder and had Heather slowly apply pressure to the pedal and got no fluid to come out. In fact, I even cracked a bleeder on a rear brake and sat there pumping the breaks for 15 minutes and never had fluid move at all (zero drop in the reservoir). I'm pretty sure I was dealing with a shitty master cylinder all along here. It's $80 for a new one. Pisses me off. I just wanna be sure. Still trying to figure out if I'm gonna buy one in the morning.

Still trying to figure out who, in their right mind, buys a used car with 4 different tires on it (some with belts hanging out) and a drivers door that doesn't work? I'm not even gonna mention the spray painted interior. I gotta keep this thing in the garage for fear of what my HOA would say.