International Vintage Volkswagen Forums

Need a bit of moral support here or even better a technical solution!

Trying to get the '57 back on the road ready for Stanford Hall but still have no brakes. Have replaced the rear slave cylinders and brake pipes and thought I had a simple job ahead of me to bleed them and then adjust them up.

Have just spent pretty well all evening with my VW buddy bleeding the system but am still getting air coming through and of course no pedal pressure.

I am wondering if the master cylinder might need replacing but it was fine right up until I stripped the rear brakes down, and I'm not sure that a faulty master cylinder would account for a seemingly inexhaustable supply of air in the system.

Any ideas would be gratefully received as I only have tomorrow evening left in which to get it ready for its MOT on Thursday...:(

Mike

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Can you peel back the rubber boot on the master cylinder to see if any fluid is getting past the piston seal? After the repair work on the rear wheel cylinders, the m/cylinder piston is travelling to places it probably hasn't seen for some years and you might have finished off a piston seal that was marginal when you started?

Check the seal between the reservoir and the m/cyl - perhaps it is drawing in air there.

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I just had a similar thing on mine, with me it was the crap bleeding kit thing from halfords - it was supposed to be a one person job, but there just wasn't enough pressure to expel the air so it seemed never ending. I ended up doing the old 'open valve -pedal down, close valve pedal up' routine and eventually fluid started coming through. But only after quite a bit of time wondering why the hell it wasn't working. The other thing that helped a lot on mine was adjusting the shoes up before bleeding.

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Many thanks for the replies chaps.

Rob, like you I prefer the standard “pressure – release” method so that’s what we used. Can’t really get on with those gadgets with the non return valves in them.

Andrew, it looks from what you’re saying that it could be a new master cylinder required. I’ll check with Heritage and if they have any in stock I’ll pick one up on the way home this evening – if they don’t there’s not much chance of it getting through an MOT tomorrow and therefore I won’t be going to Stanford Hall.:(

I’ll report back…

Mike

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I agree with Andrew's posting. I've seen it happen quite a few times, and it's always fun to try and explain to someone why their simple wheel cylinder or flexi pipe job has turned into a full master cylinder replacement.

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A quick update: Fitted the new master cylinder last night and was then able to bleed the brakes successfully.

Got it booked in for its MOT this afternoon so will have to see how it goes...

Mike

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Cool, good luck!!

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Fingers crossed! :wink:

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She passed!:d

I'm really pleased about this because she's been off the road all winter and for the most part stuck with her rear end in the end with no engine or gear box. Cog Box Pete rebuilt the gear box for me and I have built up a 30 BHP engine out of a variety of lumps to get her back on the road.

In the process of putting her all back together again (in a bit of a rush to get her on the road in time for Stanford Hall) I stripped the rear brakes and put them back together with new linings, slave cylinders, hoses and pipes.

So I'm feeling very pleased with myself that after all that work she went through the MOT first time. There were a couple of advisories; NSF king pin has a little play on it and the lights are pathetic, but otherwise it was all good.

I'm a very happy bunny and looking forward to trying her out on the trip to Stanford Hall. Hopefully see you there...:wink:

Mike

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Thanks for rubbing it in, looks like we'll be going in a Vectra! :twisted: :lol:

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:d :d :d :d :d :d :d :d :d :d :d :d :d

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