Work completed this evening. Blocked Brake hose replaced, brake fluid flushed and bled (oh the fun). While I was there fitted new handbrake mechanisms on both rear brakes and put back the return springs that someone had deleted. While front wheels off I checked brakes and - removed the red grease from wheel bearings, and replaced with fresh ep2. Changed out the hub grease cap holders and replaced all the wheel bolts while there since one snapped on me last week. I also replaced some fuel hose that had been put straight through the body without a grommet (and put a grommet in if course), and removed the fuel filter directly above the dynamo. Whatever isn’t copper fuel line is now cavis hose which I like since you can tell if there are any air leaks very easily.
Handbrake now has much less travel on it now, but quite hard to get to the third Notch which provides the friction needed (tips please?). Brakes seem fine, was not able to get the brake pedal to the top – it’s back where it was before, action starts about 25% of the way down the pedal travel which I am ok with. Under extreme braking the car does try to move to the right, but it did that before this work too, so I’m not totally sure what’s going on there, but it’s only under extreme breaking, (close to lock-up).
Frustrating that after the extreme braking tests, I have a very slight squeal on the front brakes, but I cooper greased the pins that the pads sit on, so not really sure – any suggestions welcome…
Good work to get done, but bleeding the brakes was annoying. I bought two solo bleed kits, neither of them had a cap that was small enough for the reservoir. So I ended up with a motorcycle bleed kit, essentially just a hose with a connector to plug onto the bleed, with a one-way valve. Required a second person and a bit messy, but did the trick, and only cost £5. I do wonder what gets the strongest fit around the bleed though, because this wasn’t perfect.
Sounds like you have had a busy few days.
Generally I manually bleed brakes but if a persistent tricky one, then where possible I prefer a pressure bleed as opposed to a vacuum type, the reason being if system weak, particularly master cylinders, then a vacuum will suck in the brake seals and introduce air into the system where a pressure will not.
Re the brake travel once no air in the system, as I mentioned earlier @ #9, that design of self adjusters relies on friction to keep the shoes correctly adjusted and unless good genuine replacement shoes and adjusters what happens is the weak adjusters slide back out of adjustment with the strength of the brake shoe return springs.
The correct thing is good quality parts, but the cheat is to slightly weaken the top return spring so it doesn't overcome the self adjusters, a slight twist of a flat screwdriver between one of the spring coils is usually enough, then as mentioned earlier, you ease the shoes outwards with a flat screwdriver pulling the self adjusters outwards a little to a point where you can just slide the brake drums on, then give the drum a light tap with a copper mallet to square the shoes up and the drum will spin freely whilst still at max. adjustment position. This of course is with handbrake cable adjustment backed off beforehand, if this is done front and rear then the brake pedal should be as good as it can be. You can then adjust handbrake cable if required.
Regarding your other issue regarding brake bias, as in pulling to one side on braking, I think you will find it is nothing to do with steering geometry.
When I started in the motor trade many cars still had drum brakes front and rear, disc brakes unless major fault tend to be much better in stopping in a straight line.
The trick is on drum brakes to file a lead on the leading brake shoes (make sure it is only the leading shoes) the leading shoe on a single double acting wheel cylinder is where you look at the direction of rotation of that wheel you will see usually the front shoe if cylinder at top of back plate, is the leading shoe. What I was taught at MV college in 1969 is that the leading shoe gives a "self servo action" which increases braking effort by trying to grab on more than a trailing shoe. This is good for improving brake power, but if shoes have a tendency to grab on, the answer is to file away a slight lead on that leading edge to reduce the "self servo action" often all you need is a rough file to make a slope from where the shoe friction material starts to contact the brake drum, it doesn't need to be much 10-15mm, just enough so it contacts the drum at a less sharp angle.
Another point to check when fitting brake shoes is usually the leading shoe has less brake material nearest to the wheel cylinder than the trailing shoe, I have often seen that wrong!
If you are not sure what I mean ask and I will try and draw a picture, but my artistic skills are very limited.
Note you must do the same on both sides of front brakes equally.
It does work, my test is 30mph on an empty flat road, hands off steering wheel and brake hard without skidding to a stop in a straight line!
Of course, at your own risk if you try this at home folks.
