Weird brake problems - Binding and stiff pedal

Post by **Doodleboink** » 04 Jun 2007, 15:31

Front nearside and rear offside binded up a bit yesterday. Gave the stop pedal a good pump while stationary (engine running) and all seemed fine. Press the go pedal and seemed to roll along with no resistance.
This morning I noticed that my brake pedal was extremely stiff, but still stopped the van happily. I eventually gave in and stopped to have a butchers. All 4 wheels were warm. I filled the tank up, then when I got back in, pumped the pedal a bit with the engine off. Started the engine, felt the pedal and it felt 'normal'.

AFAIK the PO replaced the clutch/brake master cylinder not too long before I bought the bus (I think we have a receipt and it does look very new, so little to doubt him). What have I done? Is there air in the system? Have I boiled the fluid with the bound brakes? Is the fluid full o' water?

All seems fine now and there wasn't any time when the brakes struggled to stop the bus. But, I don't want to be in the situation where we're playing the 'are we going to stop in time' lottery.

Plenty of pad left on each corner.

2l AC 1983 Kamper. Searched forum and WIKI but couldn't find owt similar.

E D I T: Nearly forgot, where the servo? Do these 'go' on these things?

Post by **dazzzer1** » 04 Jun 2007, 17:30

not sure about the symptoms but my mates van had very erratic brakes, solid/sloppy pedal and ace-low effort depending on the day of the week or wind direction, turned out to be the one way valve on the vacuum hose that comes off the manifold, easy to check, should only blow through one way, £6 from just kampers.

the servo is in the dash behind the steering column. to check this put your foot on the brake and turn the van over and you should feel the pedal drop a little

Post by **Doodleboink** » 05 Jun 2007, 10:00

Cool! I'll check that cheers. I didn't reallise there was a valve there. Pedal does get the assistance from the servo but I didn't know if they could go intermittant. I'll take a look at that valve anyhow. Thanks.

Post by **jason k** » 06 Jun 2007, 06:35

only other thing i can think of is an internally collapsed brake flexi. check their condition. i had this on an old escort once. was sometimes letting fluid thru and then not releasing binding the brakes.

Post by **Doodleboink** » 08 Jun 2007, 13:26

Valve checked and good. Had a slight sloppy brake pedal - oh noes no brakes moment on motorway last night. They were there, just further down the travel.

If you were to, for example, push the pedal with no hydraulics attached, would the pedal hit the floor? Or does it have limited travel and if so how much is this travel (ish)?

Thanks.

E D I T: Hopefully changing fluid and bleeding this weekend, so it may be that that sorts her out. (I won't be driving around with frelled brakes BTW, I've got thicker ARBs and bigger brakes to fit to my car this weekend already, so might not have time to do the bus, but fingers crossed cuz it's annoying me)