My friends bike was stagnant for a while because we was getting his **** painted. During that time the bike sat so he decided to do a little maintenance. He replaced the brake pads front and rear and he decided to also flush the system so he bleed the fluid leaving it dry until it was time to put the bike back together.

He bleed the back brakes no problem. But with the front it was a totally different story. I came upon him pumping the front brake lever saying he's been doing that for about almost an hour. I was curious about the method he was using to bleed. I asked if had pumped, held, open bleed valve, close bleed valve, and repeated the procedure, he said ya. I didn't want to take his word for it so I did that procedure with him too. Sure enough it wasn't getting any firmer.

Anybody have any ideas what could be causing this?

P.S. It was weird when opening the bleed valve on the left caliper. With or without the lever held it would just pour out fluid.

 

tie a rubberband around the brake lever and the clipon and leave it like that overnight... all of them will bubble up to the top

 

UPDATE: It was the "master cylinder" (?) itself. It needed a rebuild. I'm guessing letting it go dry let the seals go to ****. Problem solved.