help! - excessive brake pedal travel

[Slugsie]

this is what i reacon is wrong with mine,especially after 3 trips to Baldhu and in the deep stuff so next weekend i am hoping to get everything stripped down and checked out

The auto adjusters have a tendency to not auto adjust, so they need a bit of manual assistance. You can tell if the problem lies with the auto adjusters by how far out the hand-brake comes. If it's a long way, then you need to adjust them. The procedure only takes 10 minutes and is as follows:

Firstly, chock one or both of the front wheels. Then jack up one side of the rear axle. Release the hand-brake and put the gear selector into neutral (press the red button to move the stick). Now get under the back of the truck, and look at the top of the brake drum, you should see a rubber grommet. Remove the grommet and inside you should see (with the aid of a torch if necessary) a small knurled wheel. Using a small flat headed screw driver you can turn the wheel to adjust it (it only turns one way). Adjust it so that when spinning the wheel, you can feel a small - but obvious - drag on the wheel from the brakes. Repeat for the other side. Once done, you should find that the hand-brake only comes out a few notches, and the brake pedal will be much firmer.

[stormforce]

Cheers Paul that will be a great help for next weekend.I'll post back after i've done them to let ya know how it all goes

[Maddog007]

my rear brakes were adjusted by the mechanic the day before i started working on the callipers, they felt great. as before that there was some pedal travel, but the pedal feels differant than before that now, yes theres similar travel, but there a lack of bite, & the pedal sinks slightly/slowly under presssure.

The rear brakes woulnt de-adjust themselves without doing any direct work to them would they ?

[Slugsie]

my rear brakes were adjusted by the mechanic the day before i started working on the callipers, they felt great. as before that there was some pedal travel, but the pedal feels differant than before that now, yes theres similar travel, but there a lack of bite, & the pedal sinks slightly/slowly under presssure.

The rear brakes woulnt de-adjust themselves without doing any direct work to them would they ?

The brakes shouldn't de-adjust, but they do. Dunno quite why or how, but it's a 10 minute job every couple of months or so.

To do a quick brake servo check, do the following:

With the engine off, pump the pedal 5 or 6 times. You should feel the pedal getting firmer each time. Then, on the last pump, keep the pedal pressed down, and start the engine. You should feel the pedal slowly sinking to the floor. If you do then it's all good, if not then there may be an issue somewhere.

[Maddog007]

yes it does as described, thought not all the way to the floor though, I wouldnt think that would be ideal. im getting some new seals for the m/c in about an hour, god there not cheap either, about 4x dearer than expected, & no one seems to stock them on the shelf, which is crazy, as in NZ, you will see a surf every 5 mins, there everwhere.
Ill be annoyed if it doesnt improve the problem. These brakes are driving me nuts.

[Slugsie]

yes it does as described, thought not all the way to the floor though, I wouldnt think that would be ideal. im getting some new seals for the m/c in about an hour, god there not cheap either, about 4x dearer than expected, & no one seems to stock them on the shelf, which is crazy, as in NZ, you will see a surf every 5 mins, there everwhere.
Ill be annoyed if it doesnt improve the problem. These brakes are driving me nuts.

Yeah, sorry, when I said 'sinking to the floor' I didn't mean all the way. It'll just slowly drop down a bit. If it's doing that, then you don't appear to have any major problems.

[Maddog007]

just picked up the parts, no wonder the price seemed high, its a complete kit, including new plungers allready prepared with new seals, so thats cool, i hate fiddling with putting new seals on old bits.

Will update in a couple of hours or so.

[Maddog007]

well im about ready to just drive this pos off a cliff, claiming the brake failed. Rocon master cylinder made no differance. have bleed system for the 20th time. same result. doesnt make a diff how i do it, either by my self, or with a helper.

pedal feels great ,untill i start it up then its just crap. nowhere near as good as just a few days ago. when i had siezed callipers ???

If i pump the pedal with engine running, i randomly get a brake warning light on & off. which suggest a vaccum problem.

Ive bleed plenty of brakes in my time, never had problems before this ###### thing.
Anyone able to buzz AndyCook. I love to know how he got around the problem.
ive wasted half my holiday on it, im ment to be working on my Alfa restoration.

[Maddog007]

well things have improved slightly, after starting up again, the brakes felt a bit better, good enough to drive anyway. so ive been on a round trip, & have been working on the brakes to bed in the new pads. Im happy enough with the brake performance & pedal feel. good be slightly improved, but need to give new pads time i guess.

But after all this hassle, the surf still tends to pull to the left when braking. perticuly under medium braking, if i really brake harder, it seems to even up. so im clearly still having sticking problems with the right calliper. I guess im going to have to get new or reconditioned unit. but this will mean i will need to get a pair to make it even. As just unseizing & cleaning up both of my old ones hasnt really worked, even though the are at least working better now.
bugger more $$$$$

[Albannach]

Just a wee addendum.

I've noticed a couple of times on here that some folk don't quite bleed brakes correctly. Nearly right, but not quite.

When bleeding, (on a 1 & 2 generation surf at least, some motors with ABS and some exotica are different) always start from the bleed nipple furthest from the master cylinder, then for each wheel, have someone sit in the cab and pump the brake pedal until it goes hard, then hold it down. Then, and only then, open the bleed nipple until the pedal goes to the floor, once the pedal is at the floor, close the nipple BEFORE releasing the pedal. Repeat until no air is present at the nipple before moving on to the next one.

Brakes bleed on the principle that air will always go to the point of lowest pressure, that's why it can sometimes take a while to move all the air out. Air trapped in the master cylinder will often find its way back out through the reservoir.

Sometimes, particularly on motorcycles with dual front brakes, it's easier to bleed in reverse using pressure to push fluid into the brake system from the bleed nipples.

Lastly; unless you have some weird hatred of paint, don’t use them pressurised bleeding systems!