Brakes not working

[stag36587]

Can you clamp the shoes together to replicate the drums - but so you can see what's going on - and try bleeding them like that... ? Obviously don't press the pedal too hard...

Yes I might give that a go.

[kennatt]

From the hundreds,if not thousands (Been involved with cars for 55 years or so in and out of a family garage) 99% of the times a pedal needs pumping to get a hard response indicates mal adjustment. Air in the system is indicated by a springy
pedal and all the pumping in the world never gets to a hard pedal,yes the pedal is at the top of the stroke but still springly.Air can be compressed,fluid can't.
If that's your fault,bleed it again and using BMs method of removing the handbrake attachments,adjust all up till the wheels are locked,indicating that the shoes are in hard contact with the drums,if all the air is out then the pedal should be instant and solid with no ,or very little spring. then take the adj,back one notch at at time all round,untll the pedal is acceptable,and the wheels just catch.
Just had a thought.......................I once had a similar problem and found that one of the cam adjusters was slightly worn and after proper adj,on the first pedal stroke it was letting the cam drop back thus un adjusting. Fitted new cams on the offending wheel ..solved. I discovered it by doing the above and noticing that after a brake test one wheel was spinning free after full adjustment/ Worth a look.

[bmcecosse]

Which is why I suggest a trial without the drums - to see if it's solid then!

[stag36587]

After several weeks of being too busy and illness, I have managed to spend some more time on my brakes. As a last resort I changed the new master cylinder for another new master cylinder and after normal bleeding processes, I now have a firm pedal at last I will take the old one apart when I get a chance and see if I can see any obvious reason for the original problem. Changing the master cylinder is not a job I want to do again - I did it by leveraging down the torsion bar - just - but for the time it took I would have been just as easy dismantling the suspension!

Hopefully brakes will continue to behave themselves which means I can now build up the rest of the car - my hope is to get it to the National in June. It's not been on the road since at least 1995 if not earlier.

[bmcecosse]

Jono (JLH Minors) found some faulty master cylinders a while back. Can you return it to your supplier??

[stag36587]

Yes will send it back

[bmcecosse]

I wouldn't open it up then! Just send it back and complain about the MANY HOURS you have struggled to make it work - and no doubt wasted many litres of brake fluid too......

[stag36587]

Yes true, it's been an incredible waste of time and effort

[8eab]

I am intrigued with the idea of adjusting the snail cams to lock the brake shoes hard against the drums.... how would you do this with the front brakes? there are 2 cylinders and just one hole in the drum to adjust the snail, once you have done 1 of them, how would you rotate the drum to adjust the other?

[bmcecosse]

With a lever.... Obviously not THAT tight that you can't turn the drum...

[stag36587]

Yep, I managed to do one adjuster completely tight "minus one click" which was enough to be able to move the drum just enough to reach the other adjuster