Front brake re-plumbing

Workshop and Technical tips & tricks.
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RMS
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Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 12:02 am
Location: Near Wakefield, UK, in God's own Country!

Front brake re-plumbing

Post by RMS » Sat Apr 14, 2012 9:07 am

Hi all,

As many of you will have twin leading shoe front brakes (standard on LWB & 6 pot), this might be of some use.

One of the issues with the original design is that the bleed nipple is fitted to the lower brake cylinder. Now we all know that air rises, so there's a possibility that the top cylinder could have air left in it after bleeding.

The recommended way to get rid of the air is to wind the shoe adjusters right back, so there's little room for air, then bleed, then adjust the brakes out again.
If that doesn't work, you can remove the drum & shoes, and G clamp the piston so it's pushed right back into the cylinder before bleeding.

Another solution is to re-plumb the pipework, as below, so the bleed nipple is in the top cylinder.

Image

Top cylinder
Image

Bottom cylinder
Image

This mod requires just one extra pipe to be made up, from the flexi pipe to the bottom cylinder, to replace the short one which went to the top cylinder.
The link pipe between the cylinders remains the same.

Obviously, you wouldn't neccesarily want to go to the trouble of re-plumbing unless you were changing cylinders/pipes anyway, or if you found a continuous problem with bleeding, but it does make future bleeding a doddle :cheers:

Hope that helps,
Robin.
1967 109" Carawagon 200TDi
1972 109" SW Carawagon 2.5NA
1958 109" Carawagon 2.25P (project)
1972 109" Carawagon 200 or 300TDi (project)
1974 Dormobile 2.25D (project)
(Robin on S2C forum)
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bigdave
Posts: 68
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2012 4:27 pm
Info: Elizabeth 1967 Carawagon
Location: York

Re: Front brake re-plumbing

Post by bigdave » Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:40 pm

I never thought of that!!!
I use a 100ml syringe and back bleed but this is a good solution if, as you say, you're replacing everything.
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