Morris Minor Owners Club

Thanks. Its ok I found an innocent passer-by to help. I didnt notice when they arrived but i think they must have had a wooden leg or something as when they left again they were limping.

The tube I used was very cheap... I got it free from the fisheries team at work. I suppose they use it for bubblers. Anyway its transparent, as long as you like and fits very snugly! A whole 2m of it costs about £1.70. I'm betting on being able to get it in an aquatics shop for next time. A bleed kit from Halfords had a silly short tube and cost about £6 (they only had a couple of sorts when I was there) so I couldnt bring myself to buy one.

Well done getting the kunifer - it's the one to use. But you know how easily your 'copper' pipe broke - if your others are the same - seriously - get them changed.
Brake bleeding is easy - tube in jar with a little fluid - top up master cylinder - open bleed nipple, and sit back with a coffee. Just keep an eye on the master cylinder level. Repeat at all the wheels - best to start furthest away from the master and work towards.

Lol! So much for all that... master cylinder's gone now.

Why do you think that ? They really are very reliable.

It can happen shortly after bleeding. The seal inside travels to hitherto unknown territory, which can cause it to fail either immediately or very soon after (usually after many years a ridge develops between the movement for normal travel, and the "unused" bit of the bore).

A new seal might be flexible enough to cope with this, but a shiny new master is probably not a bad idea

Well, there's been a theory (Ray) that its not been that great from when it was new, last year... but then on friday eve the brakes just totally failed with a lot of 'squidging' noises from the master cylinder.
.... great timing, miles from a parts place on a bank holiday weekend and a job interview to go to today - but whatever - I'm just lucky I didnt crash.

Managed to borrow a master cylinder thankfully! But I just couldnt handle fixing it myself what with everything else going on, so I took it to a nice irishman called Ernie who changed it for me for a small fee while I was at my interview. Phew! , and I was able to borrow my sister's mini (with more pleading than I'd normally do) for the interview.

However, Ernie changed the m/c but then found the rear offside cylinder is leaking - he says a lot!! It was definitely fine when I bled it a week ago.... but maybe that is what went when the brakes failed and not the m/c atall... although the level in the m/c was fine... so I still dont get it really.

Anyway, m/c hopefully ruled out now, and I've managed to get home uneventfully atlast, so I'll have a look and see whats really wrong tomorrow, probably change the wheel cylinder, get my housemate to help me bleed it and HOPEFULLY I will be sorted!

... in time for the next interview on friday!

So - how did you find the Mini compared to the Minor ??

Nice! Its a little silver mini 25 special... well-looked after (she's just been given it as an inheritance from an elderly friend of hers who died) ...no drafts... no water coming in... ;)

I still liked picking my moggy up from Ernie and driving him home though! And my car definitely has better acceleration than hers - and probably a better top speed. Her engine is only little compared to my whopping 1098! Lol!

Also my car is better at going over sleeping policemen.

My Mini is ultra quick - and very firmly sprung - my wife refuses to travel in it. There is that more relaxed and restful feel getting back into the Minor.

Yes my sister's mini felt very firm compared to the moggy. She was saying she liked how she bounced going over bumps, so i showed her how, in my car, you not only bounce going over the bump, you continue bouncing half-way down the road!
I think that might be a lot to do with my seats aswell as the suspension though.

I suppose in the mini it would give you a headache pretty quick if you bounced too high inside - morris minor roofs aren't this high for nothing! ;)

I did like it though - I suppose cos it reminded me of our lovely little mini clubman which my eldest sister (sorry I've got three!) learned to drive in when i was about 12. That car had such character. The lights used to go off for no reason (often in tandem with the interior light coming on) - the way to fix it was to get the passenger to open and slam their door while still moving...

However, Ernie changed the m/c but then found the rear offside cylinder is leaking - he says a lot!!

Was Ernie sure that it wasn't a failed oil-seal on the axle?

It might be worth checking....

Thanks Kate - Yes I asked him that as the axle has been leaking from all sorts of orifices as you say - but I've had the wheel off and he's right, that cylinder is leaking now too! Not lots though - so as I do now have a pretty good (reliable) pedal, I'm going to my interview tomorrow and fix it afterwards.
When I have a job again I'll think about the axle. Have run out of money for the now.

Any good tips on changing the rear cylinders? I've not done them before. I guess its much the same as the front except only one cylinder and attaching the handbrake cable.

Ooh - something else Ernie said was wondering if the shoes might be glazed and maybe roughing them up with emery/sandpaper. Anyone got any comments on this?

I found you had to take the hub off to make room for the cylinder to come out, which turned into a bit of a headache because I didn't have a big enough spanner (thanks HarryMango!), and the wheel bearings were seized onto the axle stubs. I'm not quite sure if it's possible to fit new shoes with the hub in place, but I suspect it would be tricky as the back spring is very strong. It's possible your shoes may have been contaminated by the leaked fluid and need replacing.

If the shoes are wet - then they need throwing away. Both shoes and cylinder can be changed with the hub in place - shoes are easy - cylinder may need some 'help'. But I have always found the hub slides off easily enough - although I know Alex did have problems with his.

The rear cylinder can be removed without removing the hub. Some just need a wiggle and others need a firm tap with a hammer, but they WILL come past the hub.

Fitting shoes is pretty easy - just attach the springs and manoever them around the hub (may need to disconnect one end of the light spring to do that). Then when the shoes are behind the hub, reattach the spring and use a big flat screwdiver to lever the ends of the shoe into place.
It can be 'annoying' if the spring ends come unattached during the fiddling about requiired to fit them in place, therefore to reduce the chance of that, fit a philips screwdriver into the hole next to the spring end - then it won't have enough room to come out.

Jiggling and tapping didn't persuade the cylinder to come past the hub, and I didn't want to try bending the backplate, so I looked in the manual (when all else fails, read the instructions) and it said to remove the hub.

and it said to remove the hub.

I'd guess that was a haynes manual?
Next time it won't hurt to try a slightly bigger hammer.

doobry wrote:

and it said to remove the hub.

I'd guess that was a haynes manual?

No, the BMC workshop manual, section M.9:

Raise the rear of the car ...
Remove the brake-drum and hub assembly as detailed in Section H.1.
Draw the brake-shoes apart ...
Release the metal feed pipe ...
Remove the clevis pin ...
Remove the rubber boot ...
Extract the wheel cylinder from the backplate.

hmm... steel pipe seems to be welded onto the end again, despite not appearing corroded and copious WD40. I wonder if whoever did it did them all up too tight or something? And I know for a fact my local friendly mechanic hasnt got any imperial ends so I'll need to take him the present ones to get a whole new pipe from T join to cylinder...

Which I'm guessing will mean I'll need to bleed both back brakes later?

Have you tried undoing it just enough to take the pressure off the flanged end, and then worked it back and forth umpteen thousand times till it all works free? (Got to love car terminology...)

Also, I personally don't get on with WD that much - Plusgas seems to do a much better job, so maybe it's time to upgrade your spray