I had this issue on my 98 after replacing the rear calipers and streel lines. Tried the whole pedal pump deal with no avail. Then I used a vacuum pump and was able to get fluid to draw into the rear calipers.

Everything worked great after that.

BTW- used vacuum pump tool P/N 25136 from Autozone.

 

Had the same problem on a 98 S-10 Blazer, the problem was when we changed RR caliper the fluid siphoned out of the brake line and air gets trapped in the ABS unit. After much bleeding (to no avail) I came up with this idea and it WORKED! Took the rear brake line fitting (from the master cyl) out of the ABS unit. I used my A/C flush canister,w/ an air nozzle w/ a rubber pointed tip filled w/ brake fluid removed the RR bleeder (and about 20 psi) and purged the line until fluid came out of the ABS unit. Put bleeder back in the went to LR bleeder did the same thing. Bled line from MC then re-attached line. RE-Bled all four wheels in this order RR,LR,RF,LF. Applied brake pedal, brake light went out, Full pedal!!!

 

To bleed the brakes on some vehicles, you must have the ability to put the ABS unit in a bypass mode. This allows you to temporarily open the control valves in the ABS unit up so brake fluid can flow through it to get any air out of the system. You cant do this with the cheap scan tools, come cars allow you to do it manually, many do not.

 

ive been told this and heard this multiple times from a few people and forums and have never ran into this issue yet. i pretty much get every break job at work, new and old, foreign and domestic and have never had to mess with any scanner or anything with the abs.

not saying its not possible im just surprised i never ran into this. anytime i get any weird car in there like a audi, volvo, etc ill always go on identifix and look up the bleed procedures to make sure theres nothing screwy.

there was some other weird thing i was told years ago about town cars, when you push the calipers back in while changing pads you were supposed to release the bleeder on the abs, never did that and years had no problem