Anyway, I ended up draining the front brake fluid and replacing it along with the brake pads, and cleaning everything up. Here are some thoughts, and what I learned:
* I saw one post where the person said they were riding around without a front brake... now THAT is Crazy!
* I did not replace any internal components. no new wheel kit, no master cylinder kit... just new pads and a careful and thorough cleaning.
* "Cleaning everything up" is important... Be clean. use clean rags, clean work space, clean fluids... clean clean clean.
* As several folks have noted here in the forum, I spent a long time in the bleeding process without much change. But I disagree with, and did not use, the technique of opening the bleed screw then squeezing the lever. As with bleeding auto brakes, (in the old days, this was a regular thing, back before disks) the way I was taught, is to squeeze a few times (slowly), hold squeezed, open the bleed screw, close the bleed screw, release. a short piece of clear tubing on the bleed screw will retain a bit of fluid in it, let you drain it into a waste container (never re-use it!) and will let you see the bubbles come popping out.
* In the case of the Virago, using this technique got most of the air out of the lower end, the slave cylinder, but the brake was still non-functional, so I tried the Crazy Front Brake Bleed Technique mentioned idea of zipping the lever down over night. One night, anyway, without any real success.
*I didn't want to spend the next week bleeding the danged brakes... I've got things to do! And my assumption was that air was trapped in the top end of the system, up at the master cylinder.
* So, Using the same technique: squeeze (slowly...) several times ~ hold ~ Crack the system open ~ close the system~ release the lever. BUT, instead of cracking the system open at the bleed screw, I stuffed a rag under the master cylinder and just relieved the connecting hose fitting. Sure enough, all that air that was trapped at the top end of the hose started bubbling out.
After half a dozen times doing that, I had good brakes, and after a couple of times more, once again cracking open the bleeder screw, I had great brakes.
A final thought... It was probably significant that I got most of the air out of the lower portion of the system first before trying to get that last bit out of the top end... seems like otherwise you would be fighting it all the way down.
Ride long, and prosper!
