Kristina

Maddmax - You were on the money about the clutch. We tightened it down a bit and it engaged, no problem. We detached the line from the master cylinder to the splitter and used an air compressor to see if we felt anything at the bleed valves (we took the stems totally out so we wouldn't damage them), and nada. My dad thinks its because there's simply too much for the air to force its way through - eg, the cylinders - but I think it's because there's a leak or a blockage. Regardless, I think you're right about the splitter itself, it was just too much of a project for us to get into last night because everything is, well...you know. Stuck, lol. We don't want to damage any of that metal tubing bc it's all in good condition - no rust or decay - and replacing it all would be, ah...a *task*, lol. So if you have any advice for unsticking it all (aside from the prodigious application of WD-40.) without damaging it, it would be very welcome. Sniper - See, that's along the lines I was thinking, but we checked the assembly and as far as we can tell, nothing is in the way. He watched under the car while I depressed both pedals over and over again. We adjusted the clutch and it works now, and the back brakes bleed, so I think it's probably not a blockage of that kind. Doug&Deb - You're absolutely right, they all did. I'd asked him that before (he's the one who does bleed valves while I depress the pedal), but he'd said there wasn't a second one because of the tube that connects them internally, but I thought I'd seen bleed valves on all of them when we installed them. He was the one under there though so I took him at his word. But you are correct, there are bleed valves on all of them. See, toldja we are learning as we go. To the other part of your suggestion - how does one bleed the master cylinder? I saw some diagrams of the inner workings and watched a few youtube videos so I could understand how it functions, but I never saw any mention of that. Re: the lines. We managed to twist one off because the rubber tubing attached to both the metal tube and the cylinder was so stuck that we couldn't get it off. Even after it was out of the car we needed a vize to even begin to get the piece of tube free (to bring it to the store and get a match.). but the rest of the metal lines look to be in good condition without rust or corrosion, and the one remaining rubber tube is still flexible and does not have any leaks or cracks. So unless it breaks....convincing my dad that we need to take all that out and replace it is not gonna be something I can do. x.x Greg g - Aaaahhh I didn't know any of that so we'll try that all the next time we're out there. I think you might be right because despite the fact that the backs would spin before and after we bled them now they won't. We tested it again yesterday after we got the clutch working again thinking that maybe we just couldn't apply enough force against the new brake shoes but no, they don't spin. If the cylinder is too full or we don't have the room at the top of the stroke that would explain why the brakes might be having problems disengaging. I will check the other thing you mentioned, but we bought a brand new master cylinder instead of rebuilding the old one so I think it probably doesn't have any debris in there. We don't have the shop manual yet, but when it gets here (it's been shipped; we ordered it yesterday.), I will be reading that section. The brake adjustment is, well...the drums wouldn't even fit back on until we adjusted them all the way down so I'm not sure how much more we can really change them. Thanks for the help, I'll let you know how it goes.

Hey Maddmaxx, thanks for your input. The only reason I think the problems are related is because both parts have to be removed to replace the master cylinder, and I think we did something wrong when we reinstalled it BC it worked before we replaced it. It is the second situation you've describe - car is in neutral and the wheels don't spin, but we can move the fronts by hand (not the backs, but that's why we were trying to put the car in gear to begin with. We were trying to see if it was just us not being able to apply enough force by hand to move them against the new brake shoes or if something else was wrong. Despite adjusting them all the way down, it was still a tight fit to get the drums back on.). So I think that you're right, and you have given me a direction to look. To be honest, I've been reading the clutch section on the older manual that we have, but I don't understand it very well. The brakes I understand, something about that system just makes sense to me, but I don't know enough about the clutch and related systems to really just get what might be wrong there. Sorry again about my misuse of terms - there are a lot of parts on the car that I know visually and understand what they do but don't know what they're actually called. Also thank you for the input about the splitter - that's one of the things I was suspecting for the brake problem, so I will go that direction next. Funny thing, I didn't know there was an order you should bleed them, but we ended up doing it in the order you describe anyway, lol (Except the bottom fronts - they don't have a bleed valve.).

Hello! My name is Kristina. I’ve been lurking here a bit and finally decided to jump in and ask a question or two. My dad and I have been restoring a 1953 Plymouth Cambridge together for fun, but neither of us are what you’d call a car person. I’m pretty mechanically inclined (I’ve spent the majority of my career fixing computers), and good at problem-solving though so we’ve been making progress. Slow progress, but progress. I’ve spent a lot of time researching answers to our questions, and this forum has ended up helping a lot. However, now we’ve run up against a problem that requires more than I can just Google. well, two problems, really, and I think they’re connected. We cannot get the clutch to engage and we can’t bleed the front brakes. The backs are fine. The reason I believe these two issues are connected is that we had to remove the floor panel and replace the master cylinder. Now because the back brakes bleed and engage, we know that it’s not the cylinder itself but rather a mistake we made while reassembling the whole area (especially the clutch, bc we tested that before replacing the cylinder and the car went into gear and the wheels spun.). I *think* that the problem with the clutch is improper adjustment of the push rod that engages the transmission when the clutch is pressed, but I’m really not sure. I have a manual from the 1930s-40s, but obviously it’s the wrong decade. We ordered the correct one today. We also had to remove...I’m sorry, I don’t know what it’s called, I’m pretty bad with correct terminology...anyway, we had to remove the drivers side metal brake line that runs from this little connector/splitter thing and up to the drivers side front brake and reinstall it in order to replace the rubber hose that connects it to the brake itself. We managed to twist off the end of the metal tube in the course of removing the old cylinders, but we repaired it with the proper equipment. I don’t think it’s this though because both front brakes are the problem, not just that one. All of the shoes and cylinders were replaced with new ones as well. I'm not sure what other info or pictures would be relevant but I can get them if requested. So do you guys have any ideas? Especially ones that don’t involve taking off the foot well panel and the brake/gas/clutch assembly again because MAN was that a pain in the rear to get back on. Thanks for any help you can provide!