I Challenge You.........

[JRHaelig]

to find any vehicle with a more pain-in-the-asstic location of a master cylinder than a 1939 Buick.

 

Italian cars don't count.

 

I further challenge you to find anyone - including a Marine son of a Navy man - who found more colorful ways to express frustration than I did while installing said unit.  

 

It was bench bled and somewhat full, at the beginning, anyway, and I was on my back.

 

How in blazes do you refill the darn thing while bleeding the system?

 

I think a bent nozzle squeeze bottle is a good start.

[39BuickEight]

I just use a long rubber hose.

[Grimy]

Back when the earth was believed flat, and I was working in a gas station, we had large rubber syringes (bulb with long stem) for exactly that purpose.  They were similar to the syringes used for adding distilled water to batteries.  Remember the bakelite "battery boxes" on gas station islands?

 

1948-50 Jeepsters will rival your '39 Buick in the master cylinder filling-difficulty category, and there was no plug in the floorboard found on other makes.

 

Bleeding:  Many trips to the vicinity of the left hood hinge, each time wishing that you had longer arms....

[39BuickEight]

And a turkey baster works great for the shocks.

[Grimy]

3 minutes ago, 39BuickEight said:

And a turkey baster works great for the shocks

Or, for some, a small mustard squeeze bottle

[Spinneyhill]

My 1930 Dodge master cylinder is a pain in the tripe to refill when bleeding. I made a brass plug for it with a short length of brake tube soldered into it and attached a clear hose to the tube. The other end of the clear hose was on another short piece of brake tube set in a rubber bung plugged into a plastic bottle (with its bottom cut out) hung on something handy. The bottle (which functioned like a funnel) was filled with brake fluid. I could do most of the job on one bottle full. To finish, just bleed something till the fluid is out of the clear tube, then carefully disconnect so as to not spill any fluid.