The photo shows my air compressor hooked up to the brake reservoir.
It only took a round 2 to 4 pounds to push the fluid through, the orange bulb in the line is a water trap.

I'm quite sure all the air is bled out, but I still have no brakes _ the pedal goes all the way to the floor.
I'm hoping that once I start the engine, the vacuum will activate the air valve and the brakes will work as they should.

This is the first time I've rebuilt brakes with one of these external brake boosters.

 

Jeff did you bench bleed the master cylinder? Your system may not have filled the master yet did the system. The booster is activated by pressure from the master so I do not see how running the engine will help. Just bleed the master. Good luck!

 

I was thinking about bench bleeding it, but I thought by forcing the fluid into the system with compressed air, it would simply fill up, but I guess not.

 

The Master Cylinder is a non residual type, there is a valve on the inlet which allows fluid to enter the cylinder, when the pedal is pressed the initial pressure closes this valve and the fluid is pressurized on the outlet side.

Pressure bleeding will fill the cylinder as long as no further air is introduced into the system.

First get someone to pump the brake pedal, and look in the reservoir to see if the fluid level changes while the pedal is being pressed, if it raises, the inlet valve on the master cylinder is not working, and the fluid is being pushed straight back into the reservoir.

Another way to check this if you are on your own is to put a clamp on the flexible hose from the reservoir to the master cylinder and see if the pedal stiffens.

The vacuum servo only makes the brakes easier, if you don't have a hard pedal, the servo will not make a difference. The problem will be on the fluid side not the vacuum side, if the pedal was as stiff as hell then you would look at the vacuum side first.
Check the master cylinder as above and let me know how you get on. The next step would be checking the fluid side at the servo.

This all assumes you bled the brakes from all wheels of the car of course

 

If all seems good above the next thing I would suggest is clamp off each of the three hoses in turn and see if things improve in case its a problem at one of the wheels.

 

It's acting like there is no fluid in the master at all.
No fluid moves in the reservoir when I push the pedal, I'm beginning to wonder if I forgot to put a piece in or I put it together wrong.
I'll pull it out and bench test and take it apart if need be.

There shouldn't be a problem with any of the calipers themselves HS, they were all sleeved and when I pressure bled the system I started with the one furthest away from the reservoir and continued until clear fluid came out of all the bleed nipples _ done one at a time.

Thanks

 

The master cylinder checks out, it's a problem with the servo; Bah !

 

You have fitted the clevis pin to the master cylinder haven't you :-) ?

 

The fluid side of the servo is pretty simple, with no vacuum there is no assistance, unless you have a leak inside the servo (but you should be losing fluid) the servo will not give you symptoms of no brake pedal.
Take the outlet side off, and put a 3/8 bolt in there to seal the outlet, you should have a solid brake, if not it has to be master cylinder. If you have a solid pedal, reconnect the outlet, and remove the outlet pipe from the servo, blank that off and try again. If the pedal is solid then, the problem lies with the calipers or pipework.

Here's a link to a great explanation of the servo Remote Brake Servo

Really stupid question, but you have connected the reservoir to the top of the master cylinder and the outlet to the bottom one that points downhill?

 

Ha Ha… Yes on the outlet pipes to the master.
I have had made some progress, I bench bled the master _ that in it self took a lot of pumping, but finally got the air out.
After spending all afternoon with the vacuum bleeder, I have some peddle, but the system seems to be very prone to air locks.
If I spend too much time on one caliper with the bleeder, the air lock moves there and the air just keeps coming.
Pumping the peddle produces a hard peddle eventually, but I think the air moves around then.

I'll get the proper Gunson kit and open all four bleed nipples at once, hopefully that will move the air lock(s) out of the system.

I've easily pumped a litre of fluid out of the front left caliper and the air just keeps coming.
I've put grease on the bleed screw threads so it doesn't show as air getting past the threads.

What a royal PITA that has turned out to be, when I put a new master in my lowly B2200 truck, it was easy, but not this.

 

Is it an original servo correctly mounted? I seem to recall that some of the aftermarket ones need to mounted at an angle so they bleed correctly, if they are horizontal they won't for some reason.

Its not a problem I have ever had but maybe in your case try either moving the servo or maybe jacking up the car to alter the angle?

Also what pressure are you using on the airline? My pressure bleeder uses a car tyre and I set it to no more than 20PSI for this, if you over pressurise you might be getting air in? Perhaps get an assistant and manually bleed it and see if that helps.

 

I just had it set to no more then 10 pounds.
I used an old lid from another reservoir and it wouldn't hold anymore then 10 PSI pressure, that's why I have to get the proper Gunson kit.

The servo itself can only go in one way, it's the original one, not the new style one.
I also found an article where a guy with an XKE couldn't get the air out either, the bubbles would not stop coming, he even left it for a few days to self bleed and it didn't work.
He eventually was loaned a pressure bleeder where the fluid is forced in like the Gunson kit, only his was more fancy with it's own compressor and regulator.

I'm sure that's how it's done at the factory, or something close to it.
Think about it, there must have been an easy way to do it, for assembly line purposes.

I've also tried manually bleeding it to with some help, the air seems to stop and then it comes some more.
Or if I get clear fluid out of one place, the air seems to travel and move around and return to where I had clear fluid depending what caliper I bleed.
It's a horrible system with too many up hill curves and places for the air to get trapped.
Typical British design with no thought as to what problems may arise when designing and assembling things.

 

Well, I had no trouble bleeding the brakes on my Mark 2 in 1987 ! However as well as rebuilding the master cylinder, I rebuilt the servo. There are two hydraulic seals in that device, one is quite small on the air valve, and the other is larger on the main hydraulic circuit that applies the brakes. Worth checking, I reckon, as you've not found anywhere else so far.

 

Well that begs the question, what method did you use to bleed you brakes and did you have a helper ?
I'm pretty sure I've got the servo back together right, that fact that I have brakes would indicate as such, I just have to get rid of the air.
I've rebuilt my entire system, clutch too, everything was sleeved with bronze.
If I recall, there's actually three seals, the one you don't mention is just a fluid seal, it doesn't actually push fluid.
It seals the main vacuum shaft from the master cylinder.
When this seal fails, brake fluid enters the main vacuum chamber and when enough fluid builds up in there, the car burns it.

When I did mine, I didn't touch any of the adjustments in the servo, all I did is have the bores lined and I put things back together, there was no reason to disturb the rod length adjustment.
The brakes were actually working very well at one point, but then it sat for 8 years and the water in the brake fluid did a lot damage _ what a mess !

 

When I bled mine I used a Gunsons easy bleed and was done in less than 5 minutes.

I must be honest I don't like your bleeding arrangement so if it were me I would try an easy bleed or manual bleeding, grab your other half/neighbour/passing stranger and give it a go.

 

I ordered a Gunson kit yesterday.
I did ask them if one of the lids in the kit would fit the Jaguar reservoir, but they wanted the size of the opening and how many threads per inch _ I didn't bother to tell them.
If it doesn't fit, I will return the kit, but because you used it, I'm going to assume that there is a lid that fits.

At any rate, I'm off for a bit, I stubbed my toe on the bed and broke and fractured it. (my toe, not the bed _ the bed's doing fine though...)
It doesn't hurt though surprisingly, but I should stay off of it.