help needed with brakes

[greystag]

HI all, made stag go faster then did not stop to well so rebuilt whole system,wilwoods on the front,disc brakes on the rear,rebuilt and had tested the master cylinder ,servo, resealed all callipers and all new lines,and braided flexes spent hours bleeding till no air ? and cannot get anywhere near a hard peddle it goes to the floor and with engine running it even worse, can anyone help, do need a bigger master, or a box of matches cheers TERRY

[Bob Heritage]

Just had the same problem, Willwoods on front and just completed a rear end disc brake conversion, I bled the master cylinder manually, then with Easybleed pressure system opened both rear calipers together, then closed nearside, then offside, re-bled nearside, then fronts and Voila-brake pedal is back. (2litres fluid later) good luck., Bob

[jakesmig]

Hi Terry,

I've got Willwoods on the front of mine and standard drums on the rear, with a BMW master cylinder and servo. It took a long time to get a decent peddle on mine but eventually I got a hard peddle with engine off, but a bit of peddle travel before the brakes operate when the engine is running, a mild concern that is on the 'to look at list'. Possibly defective master cylinder section to the rear brakes.
The hydraulic performance of the master / wilwood setup will depend on which size of piston diameter you went for on the calipers. My Willwoods offered 3 diameters of pistons, one of which was produced a near Identical surface area to the Stag piston, which is the set I went for. If you have the largest diameter then the peddle travel would certainly increase naturally because you would need to move more fluid, as you would if the rear disc piston areas exceed the Stags by much. Can't comment on disc brakes on the rear, don't want them so never looked into them.
It sounds to me that you either have a defective master cylinder which cannot produce pressure, or you still have air in the system. Even a miniscule master cylinder will produce a hard peddle so going large may not be the answer. Increasing the diameter of the master cylinder will require far higher foot pressure to apply the required system pressure at the caliper.
Try isolating the master and see if it produces and holds a hard peddle, then connect the fronts and try them, then the rears. Savage way is to crimp the outlets from each section of the master cylinder but that means replacement, or teasing out the crimp, although you sound as if you've reached 'try anything' stage.

As an aside, my brakes work really well, probably not much better than a good, well maintained standard system but even with all the enthusiastic country driving the car has had I have still never had any fade, even at full chat on the A82 on quiet morning.

John.

[022Dave]

Hello Terry,

Faversham fitted my Wilwoods, and I seem to remember that they drilled an extra bleed nipple into each calliper (one for each pot) to aid bleeding.

Dave

[barkerwilliams]

When bleeding the rears did you remove the handbrake cable and back the adjusters off down to absolute minimum? (so that the slave pistons return as low as possible).

Alan

[Bob Heritage]

Don't forget you have 2 bleed nipples on each caliper for the Willwoods.

[new to this]

Don't forget you have 2 bleed nipples on each caliper for the Willwoods.

I know the Willwoods have 2 bleed nipples,but don't you just choose which ones to use top of bottom

Dave

[stagmuffin]

you only use the top ones dave ,air doesn't travel downwards

[Stagdad]

Fluid comes in at the centre of the caliper Dave so you bleed which ever 2 nipples point upwards. Thats' if you can find a super small spanner to fit. They don' seem to be metric I had to make one.They have a 2 part nipple which could lead to the larger nut being loosen by mistake.

[Seaking]

As they are American I would have thought they would be AF spanner size

Cheers Glenn

[Phil S]

Hi Terry
silly question but l have noticed that several of the replacement braided hoses supplied with the kits are quite a bit longer than the standard hoses....have you got an upward pointing loop of hose that the air is just mooving back and forth in...a pressure bleed or vacuum bleed will pull a lot of fluid through and clear this problem if it is the cause.
Phil

[Stagdad]

As they are American I would have thought they would be AF spanner size

Cheers Glenn

Was doing mine today Glenn, they are indeed 1/4" AF , just asking to be snapped of at the first sign of corrosion.
As far as bleeding goes and getting firm pedal no issues with standard Master cylinder. I used an eezibleed at 15psi

[Arbman Al]

I picked up one of these the other day, https://www.screwfix.com/p/laser-man...FUS0UQodK5YE-A

Used it on one of the trucks yesterday, makes bleeding brakes very simple, and no faffing about getting a spare wheel or letting your tyres down.

[Arbman Al]

Whilst I'm here, what size is the bleed nipple on a standard front brake calliper, as I have one that is sheared off that needs removing and replacing.

Cheers

Found it, 3/8th unf .

[Goldstar]

yair doesn't travel downwards

Does after a decent curry