OK, what am I doing wrong? swapped a brake actuator into this car, which required removing the inverter, coolant lines, and a water pump below it. Lost a good bit of coolant in the process, maybe a beer can's worth, no more than two. Now, I got it back together, filled the reservoir, and coolant is not circulating in the reservoir, but I hear the pump running and squishy sounds. Got two clear hose stuck on each bleeder screw looped over to the reservoir. When I loosen the bleeder screws nothing much happens. The right side has pushed coolant about halfway to the reservoir, then stopped. Nothing has come out of the left bleeder screw. I've turned the key to ACC and let the pump run for a minute, bleeders shut. Turn the key off, open the bleeders and nothing. Did the same and left the key on, nothing. Ran the engine for several minutes, turn it off and open bleeders, nothing. Actually ran the engine with bleeders open, nothing. I'm guessing the system is air locked. How do I "jump start" it so that coolant circulates enough to expel air bubbles. One note, when I loosen the right side bleeder, a little coolant leaks from around the threads. Is that where I'm losing my air? Also, coolant level has dropped a few times, and I've topped it up, probably about a beer can full.
The extra fun part about bleeding the inverter loop in gen 1 is that the two bleeders connect on different sides of the pump. The one closest to the fender connects near the discharge (pressure) side of the pump, so you can go ahead and open it while the pump runs, and stuff will come out. The one closest to the middle of the car connects near the inlet (suction) side of the pump, and if you open that bleeder up while the pump is on (without making careful arrangements), you let stuff in. If the stuff you let in is air, your bleeding job becomes eternal. If you follow the steps in the repair manual, Toyota wanted you to turn the car on, running the pump, turn it off, stopping the pump, open the bleeder, close the bleeder, repeat. It's tedious as all get-out. It turns out the suction the pump produces is about −10 inches of water (relative to the open reservoir), and that bleeder is more than ten inches above the ground, so if you want a less-tedious way to bleed the loop, you can do it ➡this way⬅. That link also talks about the leaks-around-the-threads issue.
