Well, after two months of tinkering and bleeding and things improving to the point where I had some braking, I finally drove it to a mechanic. Turns out my rebuilt master cylinder was bad.

The impetus for this was that my step-sons Explorer blew a head-gasket, so he needed something to drive.

Now that he's driving the toyota, he reported the discovery of a dead baby mouse on the floor board! I'm worried that where there is one dead baby mouse, there must be more. I've heard once you get dead-baby-mouse smell in the heating system, it will never come out. Is it worth tearing everything apart to get at the heater core to make sure we remove the rodent infestation? Or wait until there is a smell (at which point we may not be able to remove it)? Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!