Hi all,
I jumped in the lad's 404 the other day to go to the shops. (Think driveway scene from The Castle) and I am very glad I did. The brakes were awful. HUGE amount of pedal travel, and very soft. He, of course, didn't think to mention this.
SO, back to the garage and out with the tools and pull it all apart.
First of all, the car is a late 68 or early 69, with factory disc brakes and standard (non thermo stable) drums on the back. (At least, I assume this is the case, they look very "normal" and simple to me.)
The master cylinder condition was pretty good, it has been rebuilt in the last ten years and still has the hone marks. The seals were all in good condition, but I will replace them as a matter of course.
Then there's the booster. The existing booster looks very much like it was a VH44. I recently bought a remanufactured VH40 from a guy here in South Australia whom I trust, so I figured I would swap the two, which I did. I have mounted it using the brackets that came with it, in the fore-and-aft orientation that I've seen documented here on AussieFrogs.
I assembled everything, bled the whole lot, and took it for a drive.
Not good.
Pedal travel is still very bad, but this time I could pump the brakes up and get a very good pedal feel if I tried. However the extra boost made the brakes super-sensitive and I locked the back up a couple of times without meaning to. Then, on the way back from the very test drive, the brakes started to jamb on somewhere, in a very unpredictable way.
So, what do I do next?
Oh, and also for the record, I have checked the rear drums and the pads are adjusted pretty well.
There is no loss of fluid apparent, and there was no loss apparent prior to the work being done.
Help please!
And as a separate aside, we were both very happy with the level of boost from the VH44. Certainly it was heavy, but no unpleasant, so all else being equal, I'd be happy to buy a new VH44 and fit it, unless there was a reason not to.
Matt
I jumped in the lad's 404 the other day to go to the shops. (Think driveway scene from The Castle) and I am very glad I did. The brakes were awful. HUGE amount of pedal travel, and very soft. He, of course, didn't think to mention this.
SO, back to the garage and out with the tools and pull it all apart.
First of all, the car is a late 68 or early 69, with factory disc brakes and standard (non thermo stable) drums on the back. (At least, I assume this is the case, they look very "normal" and simple to me.)
The master cylinder condition was pretty good, it has been rebuilt in the last ten years and still has the hone marks. The seals were all in good condition, but I will replace them as a matter of course.
Then there's the booster. The existing booster looks very much like it was a VH44. I recently bought a remanufactured VH40 from a guy here in South Australia whom I trust, so I figured I would swap the two, which I did. I have mounted it using the brackets that came with it, in the fore-and-aft orientation that I've seen documented here on AussieFrogs.
I assembled everything, bled the whole lot, and took it for a drive.
Not good.
Pedal travel is still very bad, but this time I could pump the brakes up and get a very good pedal feel if I tried. However the extra boost made the brakes super-sensitive and I locked the back up a couple of times without meaning to. Then, on the way back from the very test drive, the brakes started to jamb on somewhere, in a very unpredictable way.
So, what do I do next?
Oh, and also for the record, I have checked the rear drums and the pads are adjusted pretty well.
There is no loss of fluid apparent, and there was no loss apparent prior to the work being done.
Help please!
And as a separate aside, we were both very happy with the level of boost from the VH44. Certainly it was heavy, but no unpleasant, so all else being equal, I'd be happy to buy a new VH44 and fit it, unless there was a reason not to.
Matt