Sooooo much better than drums though don’t you think. +1 on the Eezibleed kit, makes life less hassle and you can do it on your own. Less risk of damaging the master cylinder as well.
I too use a pressure bleader, sealey version. It makes it a simple 1 person job. Great work in having the patience with the rebuild of them. Satisfying at the end
Thanks for the feedback everyone. Seems like the general consensus is pressure bleeder for servicing the car, and diy kit for servicing my rear end.
did see a tip for the rears a while back, compress the spring with zip ties. you can cut and remove the tie once its together. not that it helps you now though
100% eezibleed, I did it the 2 person way for years until I got one of those then I wished I'd discovered it years ago. 2 person way is all well and good till someone shoves the pedal too hard and turns the MC seals inside out
If a person can do that... There's something wrong with the master cylinder! Just think how hard one hits the pedal in an accident situation, or on a trackday. The rubber hoses or pedal itself should fail before the master cylinder.
Need the full set up from gunsons, eezibleed, colour tune, carbalancer, naff red strobe timing light and trakrite alignment tool. Owned most of it and used it on bl stuff, especially with twin SU carbs.
If you are on track/the road its a safe bet that your bleed nipples arnt open. Isn't it a known peril of 2 man method if you drop the pedal too far with a nipple open it can bugger the MC seals?
Yes, I agree, it is possible to damage the seals in the MC when pedal bleeding. You are not supposed to push the pedal to the floor for this very reason.
I've heard this said before, but have never seen it on official paperwork, in manuals or service documents. Surely if it was the case, there would be people fcuking master cylinders all over the place?
Made some good progress over the weekend. After reading @PhilRyder post about long pedals and all of the feedback people gave around bleeding I decided to try a few things to help the process. My whole system was bone dry so I tried to “prime” all of the elements before assembling them. first I filled the reservoir in the bay and let gravity pull the fluid through the lines while I primed the callipers. I used a syringe to slowly push fluid into the hose and through the calliper. Both methods seemed to help quite a bit as it pushed out a lot of air before final assembly. I then connected all of the brake lines but didn’t mount the callipers. I read in Phils thread that it helped to hold the calliper upright with the bleed nipple facing up when bleeding the system. I used the Eezy bleed kit at this point and flushed about 1L of fluid through the system. After that I mounted the pads and callipers and did one final bleed to see if any last bubbles came out. I didn’t push much fluid through this time. I just let it run long enough to make sure no further bubbles were coming through. Next was handbrake cable and that was the job done. I also fitted new cable clips to the beam. Hardly a significant job but given all of these bits were previously held on with cable ties it was good to get everything properly secured in place. And that’s the end of the rear end refurbish. Took me pretty much two months to do what some folks seem to get done over the weekend haha. That said it was really satisfying getting it all sorted and working properly. The underside looks much better now and everything (should) work as it’s supposed to. Just waiting for a break in the weather and I will take it for a spin and make sure it still stops! If all does what it’s supposed to I will jack the front and get started on pulling the motor out and refreshing the front.
I haven’t taken it out and properly used them but parked up in the garage it feels pretty much the same as before. Pedal perhaps slightly less travel than before, but handbrake feels identical. I think once I do the fronts the whole system should improve (front callipers are weepy like the rears were) but as it sits in the garage it’s much the same as before the rebuild.
Thanks! Hopefully it all works as good as it looks haha. Howling gales and lashing rain up here for the next few days, but when it clears I will take it out and see how it performs.
Bit of a random update but after reading Phils long pedal thread again there was some really interesting feedback in there for setting the handbrake. I have never been satisfied with the handbrake on the car, and after reading that they are self adjusting I was certain mine had been set without winding both pistons back in. Anyway, popped the cover off and it turned out the cables were set at different lengths, and all the nuts were loose. I set them to equal lengths and tightened them up a bit as well. Then as per the thread I wound back both rear pistons all the way before refitting they cables to the Callipers agin. I didn’t get a after photo unfortunately but the handbrake is so much better. Feels much more positive and comes up nice and tight on 3 or 4 clicks. As always, this forum is an absolute life saver so thanks to everyone for their feedback and advice in this thread and others.
