I just finished a bunch of things on my truck. But, I can't get the brakes working. Soft pedal, with zero movement in the calipers.
I installed the 95 Explorer MC (new not rebuilt) with a 79 F350 vacuum booster. New hard lines and hoses. New calipers, slave cylinders, drums and rotors. Resealed the differential switch with the kit from Muscle Car Research. The only part not refreshed is the metering valve and I'm thinking maybe it could be the problem.
I bench bled the MC, pressure bled the rest and now I've done it the old way with a helper pushing the pedal three times around. I'm getting no air out of the bleeder valves, only fluid. The pedal is still very soft.

On the metering valve, do they go bad? It will only bleed if I'm not pulling out the pin. If I pull the pin out I get nothing at the bleeders.
Maybe I got a defective MC.
I'm not sure, maybe I'm missing something here. Thoughts?

 

Did you run the rear adjusters out on the rear brake shoes?

 

Pretty sure I did, but it's been a couple of months since I did those drums, cylinders, and bearings so I'll check that again when it's light out.
In a dual circuit system that shouldn't affect the calipers though, even if I put them in backward or didn't adjust them out enough should it?

I'm thinking maybe there's a leak somewhere that I missed. I can't come up with anything else. Going to check all the fittings again tomorrow.

 

The rear drums will very much affect the front brakes and the overall travel of the brake pedal. The primary MC piston for the front brakes depends on resistance being applied against the MC secondary piston to the rear brakes to build pressure in the system.


If there is air in the system, the brakes will feel mushy or, if the rear brake shoes are not adjusted out, the pedal will have a long travel before pressure begins to build

 

Success!

Thanks for the help, it's working now.
All the flared ends were dry when I checked them in the morning. The nickel copper brake line material is sweet, everything sealed up perfectly first try. One e-brake cable was seized, and one adjuster was not tight enough.
After fixing those and more bleeding (the brakes, not me) the calipers still didn't move. Suspecting that the pistons might be seized I hooked up one of the old calipers and it didn't move either. Next I thought maybe the MC was bad. I disconnected the brake lines and plugged the outlets and the pedal was still soft, with bubbles coming up in the reservoir. So I took it off and disassembled it - the seals looked good but there were some little aluminum flakes in the works so I sprayed everything out with brake cleaner, coated everything with brake fluid and reassembled it. Bench bled it, reinstalled it, and bled the whole system again. Then the calipers started moving. Had my helper come over and bled everything a couple times more and now the truck will stop. Drove it around my property for a little while. The pedal is still a little soft but the six pack was drank up and I was done for the day, so we'll bleed it some more in the next couple of days and I think that will do it.
I'm still not sure about the hold off (metering) valve as it lets fluid through unless I pull the stem out of the bottom which as I understand is the opposite of how it should operate. I might buy a new one here:


From what I've gathered the valve is the same as Ford trucks and police/taxicab Galaxie cars. But the bracket is different. So I'm thinking just take it off the mopar bracket and attach it to my used ford bracket.

Again, thanks. I'm stoked to get her back out on the road again!