Author Topic: Yay, brakes work!  (Read 1980 times)

adi

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Yay, brakes work!
« on: June 20, 2009, 10:53:13 PM »
I think i finally sorted out my Scootacars brakes.

I ended up gutting the whole hydraulic system pretty much and starting from fresh, since everything was knackered. The only parts i reused were the brass double banjo unions, and the double sided banjo bolt thing.

I fitted new Morris Minor rear brake pads, new beehive springs and Minor rear cylinders. I know the usual practice is to cut the Minor hand brake lever so it sticks out of the rubber gator, and still gives the gator something to seal against to prevent dust and water getting in. However, i cut the hand brake levers too short, so i cut out some sections from some old rubber gasket i had, and glued then in the holes in the gators where the hand brake levers should stick out of. I then put alot of rubber cement inside the gator and let them set over night. So basically the gators now have no holes in them apart from the banjo bolt hole.

I re used the brake shoe return springs, since i put them in an acid dip and they came out very nice looking and not pitted (i think they were just very very dirty) so i reused them, they seem to work fine and i dont think their strength is compromised.

I bought some Morris Minor flexi hoses, i had to make my own mounts for them since the old ones were rusted away. I also bought new bleed nipples, since the old ones were pretty rusty. I couldnt find any banjo bolts to hold the hose to the wheel cylinder, so i made my own by drilling some hardened steel bolts of the correct size on a latle, and then cross drilling them, to make them into banjo bolts.

Decided to use new brake pipes just incase. The old pipes were probably serviceable, but i made new ones anyway, with new ends of course.

The master cylinder was totally gutted. I had to cut it in half, first with an angle grinder and then with an arc torch, to remove it, so its safe to say it was 100% gutted. The bore was rusty and pitted anyway, so it would be useless even if i DID take it out in one piece.

I used some kind of master cylinder i found, i have no idea what it is, iv been led to believe possibly land rover, its made by Lockheed and has thesame mounting dimensions as the one the Scootacar used, but is a thicker bore and generally much heavier built. I swapped over the pushrod from the Scootacar, and fitted it all.

The strange banjo bolt, where the brake light switch screws into, was acid dipped and came out fine, and since i couldnt find a replacement and machining one would have been alot of effort, i re used the old one, it seems to be ok. Topped off with a new Morris Minor brake light switch, and now the whole system works well.

Iv left it over night with paper under all the joints to make sure nothing leaks, but i think maybe iv got the brakes sorted. Yay!