Club 80-90 Forums

Today, whilst driving home from town I had to do an emergency manoeuvre cuz a tractor was on the wrong side of the road. I was doing about 45mph and I stood on the brake pedal so as not to hit the tractor. The Syncro started to pull up real sharpish ,when suddenly the pedal hit the floor and the brakes stopped working. Thankfully the Syncro didnt hit anything hard so there is no damage but I did 5h17 myself!!
So what happened?
The pipe from the back of the master cylinder to the front brakes burst at the point where it is clipped to the body with this white clip which also holds the second pipe which goes to the pressure reducer for the rear brakes



In this lower pic you can see the fluid leaking from the pipe (shiny stuff)



These white clips have retained moisture over the years and rusted the pipe through which caused this incident. There are about 6 of these clips in this front section of the van and there is rust on every pipe where the clips are. To replace these pipes is a major job cuz there is so much stuff in the way.

Be warned cuz if all mine were rusty I would bet that yours are too so check them around those retaining clips. I was shocked at how quickly the brakes failed which does not say very much for this dual circuit system. The rear brakes were useless on their own !!

blimey, lucky escape!

Thanks for posting the warning. Everyone will be out checking theirs now - and a good thing, too.

Fortunately, I recently replaced all my pipes.

Garyd

good to hear no damage done, could have been a lot worse. tractors are tuff bas****s.

this is common not only to syncros but to all types that use this method to secure metal brake pipes.

when you come to repair them you can use copper pipes which are much easier to bent and flare but they are not as good as the older style cunnifer "spelling??" pipes and the copper pipes are reluctant to come undone again if you ever need to.


lee.

Im actually thinking of replacing the entire front circuit with' Aeroquip' flexi pipes!

i`ve concidered going aeroquip myself.
pro`s.. less spongy pedal "not that i find the brake spongy anyway" you only need to carry a roll of hoze and a few unions and you can fix any fail in the system "ideal on long trips"
con`s.. cost, also with a rubber hoze you can clamp it with a mole grips for a quick fix "good if you are only a day away from home" clamping aero hoze ruins it.
need to re design all the hoze clips under the van.

Last time I went to the Emerard Isle the roads were so bad my exhaust desintegrated and my steering wheel nearly parted company from the shaft! Apparently the roads are much better now

..lee.. wrote: need to re design all the hoze clips under the van.

'P' clips will do the job!