We've got a 09 extended cab silverado that broke a brake line. We've bleed our brains out and can't get much pedal back. Is a special tool 100 pecent needed to bleed the brakes?

 

no specials tools needed especially if your talking about a "pressure" bleeder that you hook onto the master cylinder, that's just for bleeding by yourself.
is the truck off during the bleed?
are you starting at RR-LR-RF-LF?
how are you bleeding them?
pedal normal- open bleeder-push pedal to floor-hold at floor-close bleeder-release pedal?
and how much are you bleeding threw each corner?

could always try an isolation test to make sure the master isn't bad!

 

No I mean the Tech II tool for the abs system. We've tried the traditional way of pump, hold, crack bleeder, tighten bleeder and repeat. Still not much pedal at all.

 

oh to do an ABS bleed, sorry
ya your kinda up the creek without a scan tool to cycle the abs, what you could try doing is getting the tires off the ground, "drive" the truck and hammer the brakes, it'll cycle the abs a bunch, then manually re bleed and hopefully thatll free up any bubbles in the abs module

 

take it out to a grass field or rock lot and slam the brakes 3-4 times