Manky's Pop.

[spanners]

We had an Ipoodle -think that's what they're called. Full of angry young men shouting about stuff I couldn't understand cos they enunciate so poorly.
I'm 50 you know.

what the bl##dy ell is an IPOODLE,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

youre 50    i,m not far behind you 

[Bus Boy]

any joy wiv the brake compensator thingy?

[Archie]

The men weren't that young on the tunebox.

[merv]

Hey Spanners,
least your behind him I'm in front

[Manky Monkey]

You're merely the advance guard Merv, checking the way ahead is clear for the rest of us 
BB, we've figured out which way up the compensator valve goes, but Kapri's in charge of braking -I'm just in charge of breaking stuff -he's not convinced we need it, though I must admit I think it'd please the examiners if we fitted it, whether it's needed or not.
Hoping Mr K will be at the workshop tomorrow.

[Bus Boy]

fingers crossed then!!!

[Manky Monkey]

Another visit from Kapri today. 
The closer we get to the final deadline,the more overwhelmed I feel by it all. Help!
Mr K added the final runs of brake pipe, with me as assistant. Ready to start filling, bleeding & fixing the inevitable leaks now. Thanks yet again Kev.

[Manky Monkey]

I spent a couple of hours at the 'shop after work this afternoon. Haven't bled the brakes yet, but gently filled the system, pumped the pedal & checked for leaks. Managed to tweak a couple, including the residual valves, to seal the joints, but still got 3 leaks left -the 2 bulkhead fittings on the passenger side, (inside the car), plus the end servo fitting on the passenger side, despite tightening them all as much as I dared.
I ran some liquid pipe sealant around them & left them till tomorrow, but as Kev pointed out, they should seal on the pipe flare alone & have to withstand around 1500psi line pressure.

VW camper van dual circuit master cylinder, aftermarket kit car d/circuit reservoir & in-line residual valves, 2psi for the front disc brakes & 10 for the rear drums.

[Manky Monkey]

Having done that, I went back to the gearbox tunnel. It was all held together with self tapping screws for the first test & the examiners weren't too keen on the pointy screw ends poking out underneath, so now I'm adding new flanges & captive nuts to bolt each section together.
We've added the flange to the front of the main section, around the gearstick -a bugger to do cos it's a weird shape. Bolted back in place so I can measure up for the last bit between that & the bulkhead. The cut-out at the back of the domed section is for the hot water valve for the heater, although we've left it dis-connected for now.
Loony's Dad calls in on his way home from work & always stonily asks if I've finished it yet -I'm sure he thinks I spend all day there, rather than a couple of hours after finishing my 8 hour shift at work. I'm well aware of how fast the days are ticking by, believe me!

[spanners]

Having done that, I went back to the gearbox tunnel. It was all held together with self tapping screws for the first test & the examiners weren't too keen on the pointy screw ends poking out underneath, so now I'm adding new flanges & captive nuts to bolt each section together.
We've added the flange to the front of the main section, around the gearstick -a bugger to do cos it's a weird shape. Bolted back in place so I can measure up for the last bit between that & the bulkhead. The cut-out at the back of the domed section is for the hot water valve for the heater, although we've left it dis-connected for now.
Loony's Dad calls in on his way home from work & always stonily asks if I've finished it yet -I'm sure he thinks I spend all day there, rather than a couple of hours after finishing my 8 hour shift at work. I'm well aware of how fast the days are ticking by, believe me!

anything you need ,shout,,    (i could be near the m25 in about a week  )

[Manky Monkey]

More time would be good.

[Manky Monkey]

I arrived at the 'shop after work this afternoon to find Terry T had already been there for several hours & was surrounded by yards of wires inside the cab.
Having taken the fuseboard away & simplified the wiring, he had to remember how it all went back together -not easy after a couple of months away from it. Much head scratching & testing of circuits followed, with me again acting as assistant, before he was happy & everything was labelled up for future reference. One more visit should see it all finally back together & working. Thank you Terry.  
The leaking brake unions are fixed, thanks to some brute force from Terry. He was happy to tighten the copper/brass fittings a lot more than I had, but it seems to have done the trick.
We bled the system through twice, but it's still not right. Seems to be exactly the same as it was before -first push of the pedal goes right to the floor, then it pumps up & works, but the front brakes are binding. Really don't know what to do now -I'm hoping Kev has some answers.
Time's getting tight now & we need a quick solution. The master cylinder & reservoir are under the floor, below the level of the discs & drums. The remote dual circuit servo's higher, under the dashboard. Terry wonders if raising the remote reservoir would help. The servo cost a fortune, (several hundred pounds), but I'm wondering if it's best to just take it out & run normal low level brake pipes along the chassis rails, rather than up under the dash to the servo & back down again. We don't have to have one, we just thought it'd be easier to use, but a lot of traditional rods don't have power brakes.
It might be something very simple, but we're just not seeing it. Hope Kev can shed some light on the problem.

[BikerGran]

thanks to some brute force from Terry. He was happy to tighten the copper/brass fittings a lot more than I had

Years ago when I was a lone parent I was changing the front brake pads on my Datsun Cherry, and couldn't loosen on of the nipples for bleeding so I went to ask advive from a neighbour - he said 'just use more force - it's got to come undone! ' - and if it breaks it'll have to be fixed.  He was right of course - and it didn't break!  (but it did brake! )

[kapri]

It's the first time I've been involved with one of the twin circuit remotes. The people who sell them seem to have very little knowledge about them as we were initially told it didn't matter which side you use but testing proved there was a 150psi bias to one side.

Next up I have never used a servo HIGHER  than the m/c itself , usually they are on a level.

Residuals are required when using an underfloor assembly ,to prevent fluid bleedback. However some brake masters have them built in ,such as Morris Thousand but there is no real way of telling without details from the manufacturer .

If you remember on the master m/c I reversed one of the rubbers to reduce internal bias?

With the remote m/c so far above the master the there is no way you can do without residuals ( unless they are already included in the m/c and even then they may not be man enough).

I have used high level reservoirs to give a greater head without using residuals and they still suffered  bleedback until I fitted residuals.

The problem is that without a servo the braking efficiency will greatly reduce .The way round would be to move the m/c so it is at the same level as the servo ie bulkhead mounted .

The way to prove if it is bleedback causing the long travel ,or whether it is trapped air , would be to jury rig pipes from the m/c straight to the front 3 way union and then m/c straight back to the axle , without fitting it to chassis or removing the old set up.

Likewise it could be proved whether air by removing one circuit at the m/c and putting in a blanking bolt, and then bleeding the other circuit.

The last time the front brakes were hanging on was down to the fact that once the front circuit was bled out the pushrod was too long and keeping pressure applied.

[kapri]

Forgot to say that trad rods often don't use servos but have a much higher pedal ratio. We don't hav ethe room to increase your pedal ratio past its existing rate without either banging into bulkhead and other components or  increasing the travel so much we end up back with " insufficient reserve travel ".

To get the best pedal pressure without servo it would need to be swapped to twin single cylinders and bias pedals, more big cash and inconvenience. It's making the best decisions using the components we have with minimal additional work.

Logical progression is the way forward , ruling out problems step by step rather than just grabbing at straws. Hence jury rig front to rear first to confirm m/c /pedal ratio is correct and isolate that it is a bleeding problem and then where the air is actually being trapped.