This is how i have always bled master cylinders. Skip to 2:10. I dont remove the tubing or fittings until its in the vehicle.

Some do this. Skip to 3:40.

Bleeding a master cylinder can take time. Dont rush it.

 

the first one is precisely what i did. Is it normal for the rear brake reservoir to shoot a stream upward when depressing the piston?

 

You say you plugged the ports when you bled it, and it was rock hard. I was thinking of this (forgot about this method). Skip to 5:30.

Notice the stream shooting from the front when he pushes the plunger in. Normal. Ive done that with the front reservoir on an old Falcon. Went too hard, too fast. Hit the brakes hard with the cap off and it will do the same. Dont do that tho, brake fluid eats paint.

I see Rockauto lists ABS boosters, and non ABS boosters, which has me questioning the pushrod length. I have no idea if the pushrods are the same length but if the pushrod is too long, the brakes will lock up. If the pushrod is too short, the brakes wont work. Ran into this with the Mustang when i replaced the booster (pushrod was too long). BTW, dont push the plunger in as far in as it will go when bleeding. You can damage the seals in the master cylinder and cause an internal leak (no brakes). Ran into that with the Mustang, too.

In another post i checked wheel cylinders for ABS and non ABS. Have you looked into that yet? Like said, i never messed with this myself, going from ABS to non ABS, so im just throwing out ideas at this point.

 

The abs system was the horrible bendix 9 abs system that looked like this. I got the master and booster from the same jeep, the wheel cylinders were replaced with non abs versions. And yes the master did get rock hard when the ports were plugged. I also did shove the plunger all the way forward.. so.. guess that could always be a problem.