Soggy Brake Pedal

[MiniGT5]

Hey Guys,

I need some help with my brakes; I just finished fitting new shoes / hoses / fluid in an attempt to cure a soggy brake pedal on my 71 pickup. The thing is the brakes don’t seem to be any better (although they do stop in a straight line now on the second pump of the pedal).

I followed the bleed sequence from the Haynes manual…Although, there was a slight problem with the bleeding of the rear brakes. When I build up the pressure in the pedal and then open the bleed nipple no fluid would come out. If I then give the pedal a further pump it would go straight to the floor and the fluid would come out. Is this normal I don’t seam to recall my other minis behaving this way with the rear brakes. The front brakes still seem to bleed ok i.e. the pedal goes straight to the floor once you open up the bleed nipple.

Anyway what do you think is causing the problem with the bleeding of the rear brakes and is this likely to be related to the cause of the soggy pedal I know there must be air in the system somewhere or a faulty component but what should I check next

Many thanks in advance for any advice.

Neil

[Miniböttcher]

1. what are your cylinders like
2. is there any bits coming through when you bleed them.
3. what method are you using to bleed the brakes, i have always found the old fasion way with 2 people, one pumping the peddle , one open and closing the brake nipples , to be the most effective.
but always taken it to a local garage for them to check and rebleed
4. have you got a T piece splitter on the rear subframe or a brake pressure thing ( cant remeber the name of it)
5. also get a pin and make sure the bleed nipples are clear

[MiniHaven]

hi you have air in the system , an old trick shown to me many years ago was to go back to the master and loosen the pipe which feeds the rear half of the system and get a person to push the pedal down to expell air in this part , follow it down to the rear barkes and do a normal bleed ,, some of the systems get low enough or air right up to the master to the stage where it stops the master from working due to air trap in there .
give it a try .

[MiniGT5]

Hi Dean,

Thats a nice list of questions...

1) Cylinders all seem to be OK no signs of leakage in any of the drums or the back plate
2) any bits comming thought I presume you mean air bubbles. There is no air comming though when I bleed them although there was previously bits of black gunk (rubber ) comming though on the fronts hence I changed the hoses for new ones.
3) I'm using dad to pump the pedal with me on the bleed nipple.
4) I think there is a brake limiter valve (if thats what is called ) on the subframe instead of the standard T piece found on later minis.
5) Fluid does come though the nipples so they must be clear or this would not be possible.

Shawn,

I will give this a try possibly next weekend to see if that works. I'll keep you posted.

Cheers Guys
N

[Miniböttcher]

try what shawn said first, as the first thing to try is to get the air out ,which you all ready knew,
if that does not work
try the the simple things first,
by bits i ment bits of rust which may block up at a unions

[MiniGT5]

Shawn,

Just thinking about what you said on the master cyl thing. I only have one pipe comming out of the master cyl which goes to a front rear splitter. is this the part I should remove or does this only work for a later (dual ) type of master cyl

N

[MiniGT5]

Found this on google so might give it a try.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMJTndN9s1s

n