I Have a poor brake.........

[supercat 2001]

Senario; previous owner did the following; around 2 months ago;
Car 948cc 4 door, 1] new handbrake cable, 2] new shoes alround,
3] new brake cylinders alround, brake is not spongy, but leaves
a lot to be desired, re-stopping ! she does stop, but one has to
break in advance to ensure of safe stopping, the handbrake itself
works well, and 3 or 4 notches, and the parking brake is fine, old
timer next door, states "the old Morris" never had good brakes,
and cannot be compared to a modern car, with servo, i am a
novice, but, will have a go, next step please ????

[rayofleamington]

find a flat wide EMPTY road
get to about 20mph away from the edges,
let go of the steering wheel but keep your hands nearly on it just in case
and push the pedal VERY hard

if the car starts to pull left or right, release the brakes and steer back the way you want to go.
If it does pull tot he side, you may well have a sticky brake cylinder.

If not, repeat as above, but this time push the pedal physically AS HARD AS YOU CAN, including pulling against the steering wheel for as much effort as you can muster.

At 20mph with enough force on the pedal, you should be able to lock the wheels.
With new shoes the brakes will be less effective, but should still work. Until the shoes are evenly bedded in, you are likely to lock up some wheels easier than others so it's not a fair test on new shoes - but it does give you an idea of how to stop hard!

Needless to say make sure there's nothing on the seats / floor / boot that will get flung around, and no car behind or infront of you to wonder what on earth you are doing.

If you do this a few times over the first few weeks you are getting used to the car, it'll help you feel a bit safer - it's also a good trick to learn of how to check your brakes for safe emergency stops in between MOT's

[supercat 2001]

Have adjusted all the brakes, but rear offside binds, even with the adjuster fully off???

[bmcecosse]

Slacken the handbrake cables right off before adjusting the rear brakes - then tighten them back up to give the number of clicks you like. The 948 car only had 7" diameter front brakes, which as Ray says should be able to lock the wheels. However modern non-asbestos brake shoes are not as good as the original shoes. Later cars had 8" diameter font brakes and these are much better - well worth getting a set - they just bolt straight on. And as regulars will know.....the Wolsleley 1500 had 9" front brakes which are a direct bolt-on fit, and make a HUGE improvement to the braking. Hard to find though! And NONE of them need a servo.....

[alainmoran]

Disconnect the handbrake cables at the hubs, set the adjustment of the shoes, then slacken off the handbrake cables on both sides (by the handbrake lever), reconnect the handbrake cables, put the wheels back on the hubs and then adjust up the handbrake cable at the lever.

You are looking for it to be fairly taught (not rod-straight) after 2 clicks or so and each wheel should require a similar amount of effort to push it past the brakes - pulling the handbrake up a couple more notches should lock it hard.

Then take it to your regular MOT man & sweet talk him into properly checking that they are braking evenly ;)

[mike.perry]

Make sure that the rear cylinders are free to slide up and down in the slot in the backplate. It is worth visually checking all the wheel cylinders with the drums off to make sure that the pistons are all operating correctly..

[supercat 2001]

Disconnect the handbrake cables at the hubs, set the adjustment of the shoes, then slacken off the handbrake cables on both sides (by the handbrake lever), reconnect the handbrake cables, put the wheels back on the hubs and then adjust up the handbrake cable at the lever.

You are looking for it to be fairly taught (not rod-straight) after 2 clicks or so and each wheel should require a similar amount of effort to push it past the brakes - pulling the handbrake up a couple more notches should lock it hard.

Then take it to your regular MOT man & sweet talk him into properly checking that they are braking evenly ;)

Car went thru the mot today, and guess what failed on the brakes but, good news is, mot man will get the
brakes up to scratch, and re mot, says, total cost [ inc mot fee ] £100, not to bad i suppose

[bmcecosse]

If all he has to do is adjust them - then it's a LOT, but if he is going to renew parts etc etc - then sounds like a fair deal.

[mike.perry]

the handbrake itself works well, and 3 or 4 notches, and the parking brake is fine, :

?????????
The hand brake is the parking brake

[supercat 2001]

The plot thickens.......... rear wheel cylinder[ brand new ] previous owner fit,
sticking....... on.......... then off..........on...........then off.........
and so on, so obviously U/S............ new one ordered........

[supercat 2001]

the handbrake itself works well, and 3 or 4 notches, and the parking brake is fine, :

?????????
The hand brake is the parking brake

Double meaning obviously, all i ment to say,
was the handbrake is aok !!!!

[bmcecosse]

Yes - because the rear cylinders have two-part pistons - the outer part works via the handbrake but the inner part works via the hydraulics - and is the more likely cylinder to be 'stuck'. The handbrake can therefor work well enough - but the rear footbrake operation is hopeless - although they can usually be freed off easily enough.

[supercat 2001]

Morris passes her mot, a new wheel cylinder had to be fitted, old one
was sticking and could not be freed satisfactory, also, my brakes,
gradually getting better the more i use the car.........

[beero]

Good news, glad she passed, John.