Brakes

[soramad]

So as I pulled up outside Howdens this morning my foot on the brake which decided to plunge almost to the floor then stiffen up but much lower than normal, I decided to take it round the car park and try the brakes I found if I was gentle the brakes worked as normal but stamp on them and the pedal went half way down, lift bonnet brake fluid very near the low fluid sender, so topped up the bottle loaded the truck up with materials and slowly off to the garage, where we found that one of the rear (passenger side) slave cylinders was leaking. purchased 2 new cylinders and a set of brake shoes , the old girl goes in on Friday 8.30am to be sorted. I am impressed with the amount of braking still available by the opposite pair of good brakes (though didn't drive so fast and left a lot of space between me and other vehicles), so unless you have a catastrophic brake failure you can still stop.

[soramad]

Update, new brake cylinders and shoes fitted today, however the fault/problem was the passenger side cylinder had pushed out so far that the piston had twisted enough to break the rim of the cylinder due to the one shoe wearing down to the steel backing and in the process destroying the inside of the drum, which meant I had to get hold of 2 new drums which was managed by lunch time. I cannot understand why I was unaware this was happening as there was no noise indicating that there was a metal to metal contact . I am going to need some more bits to finish off the job properly like the locating pins for the shoes which were badly corroded and the hand brake cable(s) need renewing, also due to the weight I carry I also need new suspension bump stops.

[Bogus]

Glad you got it fixed. It wont have cost too much at least, theres worse could have happened.

[NiftyNev]

Check the rear brakes after you have it all fixed. There are often problems with them over adjusting and wearing quickly, especially of aftermarked shoes are installed for some reason. Have seen a few like this and still trying to work out what the real problem is.

If you wear out bump stops then may be seriousy overloading the vehicle.

Nev.

[Triv]

I carry 300kg of batteries and inverter in the back of mine, along with a full compliment of forestry & chippie tools and casks of real ale. (I see no point in work being a chore!)
Materials go on the roof rack. I have no idea what the combined weight is but it's a lot.

I took the back seats out to spread the load a bit and fitted a pair of Roughtrax 20% uprated rear springs. Not hit the bump stops yet!

I did have issues with the rear brakes permanently binding and trying to catch fire after the utterly incompetent Toyota main dealers in Bristol took them apart and refitted them upside down, but I gave it to Tony and he sorted it.
I remember him saying something about rear brakes often being an issue.

[NiftyNev]

I think the issue is that aftermarket may be a little shorter in length. This may allow the shoes to move outwards to the drum a little further than normal and in doing so makes the adjuster click over to the next notch. The pads are then a little too far out, in contact with the drum and wear, then the whole thing happens again and again. Had a mates Surf which did this. Told him to let me check them, but he kept driving till the shoes wore so much the pistons popped out of the wheel cylinder. I am fairly sure the shoes in my Surf are original.

Nev.

[soramad]

I carry 300kg of batteries and inverter in the back of mine, along with a full compliment of forestry & chippie tools and casks of real ale. (I see no point in work being a chore!)
Materials go on the roof rack. I have no idea what the combined weight is but it's a lot.

I took the back seats out to spread the load a bit and fitted a pair of Roughtrax 20% uprated rear springs. Not hit the bump stops yet!

I did have issues with the rear brakes permanently binding and trying to catch fire after the utterly incompetent Toyota main dealers in Bristol took them apart and refitted them upside down, but I gave it to Tony and he sorted it.
I remember him saying something about rear brakes often being an issue.

Well I have been promising myself to get some uprated springs, now having seen one destroyed bump stop and the other seriously split I must get round to doing them all together while the trucks on the ramp'

[Triv]

I think the issue is that aftermarket may be a little shorter in length. This may allow the shoes to move outwards to the drum a little further than normal and in doing so makes the adjuster click over to the next notch. The pads are then a little too far out, in contact with the drum and wear, then the whole thing happens again and again. Had a mates Surf which did this. Told him to let me check them, but he kept driving till the shoes wore so much the pistons popped out of the wheel cylinder. I am fairly sure the shoes in my Surf are original.

Nev.

That's a really good point and an excellent observation. It makes sense.
Being a Mercedes man before I bought the Surf and regular reader of the Mercedes forums, it was very apparent that fitting Mercedes oe parts solved many recurrent problems.

[Triv]

Well I have been promising myself to get some uprated springs, now having seen one destroyed bump stop and the other seriously split I must get round to doing them all together while the trucks on the ramp'

Those springs have made a heck of a difference. The old springs that came out weren't knackered at all but the confidence I now have with putting anything in it, including telegraph poles on the roof, totally justify the cost.