Bleeding my bleeding brakes :)

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Anonymous

Bleeding my bleeding brakes :)

Post by Anonymous »

Ok chaps, to try and avoid this becoming a long saga...

My '68 Sport Fury has power drums all around. The brakes failed completely after going a little soft. The good folk of this forum suggested my rear master cylinder seal was popped as I had all new wheel cyl seals fitted just prior to picking the car up and no signs of a leak.

Soooooo.... I ordered a seal kit, but this seemed to be taking for ever to come so Mick kindly donated a m/c he had spare off his Dart which was known good, although for manual brakes. Then my seal kit turned up, but turned out to be a complete master cylinder. Not bad for ?28 plus VAT. However, its a thrid party piece and doesn't look stock. The manual Dart m/c looked identical in every way tot he Fury one. So for this reason, plus I wouldn't need to bench bleed it I decided to fit Mick's old master cylinder.

Mick popped round (so there was a responsible adult in the house! LOL) and by the time I'd brewed a cup of tea for the guy he's nipping tight the m/c mount bolts! So we bled it, the rears weren't bad but the front had more air than fluid in it and we couldn't get anywhere near a pedal with a manual bleed.

So I bought m'self one of those vacuum bleeders from Sealey.

So yesterday I bled the brakes with that. With my 3HP compressor running flat out for 40 minutes a corner I thought that must have got the damned air out. Nipped up the nipples and tried. No pedal. :cry: Tried again and it felt a little firmer so I pumped it a couple of times and I had a good pedal. Hooray.

Started car, stuck it in D and it it laboured slightly as the brakes were stuck on, which I thought nothing of as the car has been standing about 2 or 3 months now. Anyway. All seemed well, nice sharp brakes.

BUT....

Went to move it 40 minutes later and the car moved smothley away, no stuck brakes, and then I applied the brake and the pedal went to the floor. Nothing. So I pumped it and the pedal came right back, but the front left brake locked on.

So now I have brakes which pump up a pressure (and hold it) but lock the front left wheel (had the car up on a jack and it does appear only to be the front left). Then looses pedal when left a while.

My thoughts are either:

1) still got air in the system causing a lock somehow
2) Dart manual m/c is not compatible with Fury power system

suggestions gents?

One thing I noticed with the vacuum bleeder was it wasn't pulling a lot of fluid through. We were at it 2 - 2.5 hours and only run 1.5 litres of fluid through.... Not used a vacuum bleeder before so dunno, but I'd have thought it would pull a gallon through in no time.
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Alex
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Location: 53 deg 45' N, 2 deg 32' W (Manchester)

Post by Alex »

Internally collapsed flexi is the first thing to check on the locking corner, air leaking past unions, leaky seats on the slave/bleed nipple surfaces if the pedal still drops when you have cured the sticking corner.

Also check the thing that regulates the pressure to the rear brakes has not failed in any way allowing air in there, had that before.
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