Help! My brakes are SHOT!

[COBALT]

My drum brakes are on their last leg. What I mean by that is the brake booster and master cylinder are in hurtin' shape. I don't have any wheel cylinder leaks or anything, and the shoes are relatively in good shape and I have nearly brand-new drums I got a couple of years ago, but I'm not getting good braking performance, and I know I have some leaking at the base of the master cylinder manifold in front of the booster. I'm loosing fluid slowly over time, which means the system is compromised.

...so...I'm thinking about getting a new booster/master cylinder, which means I assume I need to flush out the brake lines (since the system's been leaking), prep the booster, replace it, and then bleed all of the lines.

Since I've had the miraculous luck of never working on brake systems (besides replacing the pads and shoes) for this type of project I'm back at being a NEWB. What's the procedure for doing all of this?

I've heard that it's necessary to bench bleed the booster, but I have no idea what that means. I also assume it's going to be a pain in the butt to flush the lines, and bleeding them once the booster and master cylinder have been replaced. It just seems like it may be challenging to get all of the fluid out, and then pushing all the air out. Do I need any special tools for all this work? I'll be doing this work by myself, so any little extra pointers will be nice. Thx.

[Tx Firefighter]

First off, let me say, I have had to replace a ton of front brake hoses on drum brake trucks. They get to where the brakes work poorly even though they are new and adjusted properly. I have found the hoses swelled shut on the inside. Hoses are cheap.

Anyway, flushing the system is dead easy. Fill the master cylinder up and open each bleeder valve, one at a time. Allow fluid to flow out till it's nice and clean looking. Then close that valve. Refill the master cylinder, and do the next wheel and so on. Gravity does the work for you.