We have replaced and bled the brake lines on our 2000 GEM car. They still don’t work. How do we fix this?. I also believe he changed the master cylender. Brakes are drum.
Work your way down from master cylinder to find any clogs in the brake lines. If no clogs found its your master cylinder not holding hydraulic pressure.
As well if you bled each drum sufficiently then there is no clog, Check for leaks, otherwise it’s your master cylinder.
Tell us a little more about your GEM. Has it been sitting? Is it stored near salt water. Is the brake pedal up and firm - or does it go to the floor? Does it roll easily? Does the parking brake work? Who is doing the work on it?? Qualified ? (present company excluded of course)
Just don’t want to send you off to spend money if not necessary!
Larry
Drum breaks have a mechanical star wheel to adjust the pads outward, or inward… Each drum has this adjustment on the inner side of each drum… Jack the wheel off the ground, and spin the wheel… adjust till the wheel spins when the brake is not depressed, and the wheel stops spinning when the brake is depressed… adjust all wheels to the same tension… You can final test tension after adjustment by breaking the car on gravel… if it pulls one way or the other it means that one brake has more tension…
I recently went through this exact situation. After replacing the master cylinder and the wheel cylinders I flushed the brake lines and bled all four. Still no brakes.
Eventually I found that the line from front to rear was corroded and blocked. Yet I could bleed the back brakes!
I disconnected the line from the connection block in front and back and took the line to a local hydraulic shop. He made me a new line for less than $20.
My guess is that enough fluid got through that I could bleed the rear but it wasn’t enough to function. Also if yours is like mine the brake line runs on top of the frame between batteries so the line has been subjected to leakage from the batteries for 18 years. It is surprising they lasted as long as they did.