Brake Cylinders

[d_harris]

I've got myself in a bit of a confusion. Its been ages since I played with the brake cylinders and was labouring under the aprehension that they were all the same.

Visiting ESM's site there are both L/H and R/H listed - and I am sure this is a very silly question indeed but which one do I need??

Knackered cyl is Drivers side front, the one at the front of the car

Car facing ====>

[robedney]

Convention is that left/right is from the perspective of sitting inside the car. So, in your case (because I see you live in the UK) the left side is the passenger's side and the right side is the driver's side. What you need then in the right side front cylinder.

However -- having said all that -- you might consider rebuilding the cylinder instead. It's not that it will save you all that much money, but that you might have a better cylinder on the car than you can replace it with -- and a properly rebuilt cylinder is every bit as good as new. Rebuild kits are available, there's very little to it (take it all apart, clean thoroughly, hone the cylinder, replace old parts with new parts -- making sure to lubricate with nothing but brake fluid, etc.). You want to make sure that after mild honing the cylinder wall is evenly smooth -- without pits or bumps. A hone can be bought in your local parts store (make sure to get the right size). You might as well rebuild both cylinders on that side while you have it open.

Your shoes look pretty thoroughly contaminated with brake fluid and quite thin, so you should replace those as well. If for some reason you can't, make sure to very thoroughly clean the shoes and the drum with a spray type cleaner labeled specifically for cleaning brakes. That will help, but the shoes really should go.

[bmcecosse]

Better change them both - and yes RH cylinders and new shoes.....

[d_harris]

Those black bits on the floor? Remains of the bottom shoe - fair to say they are a little bit knackered and need replacing And for £20 for a set of mintex from ESM its not worth the bother of trying to salvage contaminated shoes anyway

[robedney]

Do have a good look at the inside of the drum, lest the lining rivets have turned a nice groove into it. And yeah, it's really never worth it to salvage contaminated shoes unless you just can't get replacements.

[d_harris]

Do have a good look at the inside of the drum, lest the lining rivets have turned a nice groove into it. And yeah, it's really never worth it to salvage contaminated shoes unless you just can't get replacements.

The drum is absolutely fine, no problems with it at all.

[Neil MG]

Given that this cylinder has failed I would suggest checking the other six shoes and the other 5 cylinders. If the cylinders are Lockheed (AP) then I would suggest replacing the seals in the good ones, unless you know for a fact they are less than ten years old. If not Lockheed then consider replacing, again unless known to be recent (same with the three hoses and master cylinder). You could wait for them to stick or leak, but then the bores may be damaged as well as the shoes. Even if you don't follow that advice, certainly flush clean fluid through all four corners during rebuilding. Not changing fluid is the main cause of failed cylinders.

of course there is always the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mantra, but then you have been driving round without properly working brakes and that will inevitably happen again.