Brake pedal feel

[Ceejay 72]

Does anyone have a really firm, short travel brake pedal on their Stag - and if so, did you do anything special to get it?
My brakes are perfectly efficient and can lock the wheels if required, but the travel has an inch or so before anything happens and then it is a little spongey. It makes heel and toeing pretty much impossible.
I have a newish master cylinder, fitted by one of the main specialists as part of other major work and I have bled the brakes thoroughly whilst changing the fluid.
No matter what I do, the pedal does not improve.
I've read several posts on here with people enquiring about adjusting the pushrod etc, but haven't come across a definitive solution.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Chris

[flying farmer]

I have the same problem on one of my stags, it has more pedal travel than the other. It is also the one with the new master cylinder so I wonder if thats the problem.

I did adjust the push rod to reduce the travel as far as I could, but it still isn't as good as the other one.
Neil

[Philip Wardle]

Are the flexible hoses all in good order Chris, I guess your specialist would have checked this?

[DMT]

+1. I believe Goodrich hoses solve this problem.

[ethel]

+1 for Flying Farmer's suggestion of the push rod that operates the master cylinder. After I changed the master cylinder without checking the rod length I thought I could feel the servo starting to operate before the brakes, which gave a slightly spongy feel.
John.

[dasadrew]

Check the pedal bushes too.

[mole42]

When I replaced the master cylinder and servo, I also replaced the pedal-to-pushrod connection and reamed the holes in the pedal arm. No free play anywhere. I have Goodrich hoses, Cu brake lines, new calipers and rear wheel cylinders. Running ATE type 200 DOT4 fluid, the pedal has about 1½" of free play then solid. I want to do some adjustments to reduce the travel but it's pretty good as it is.

[Ceejay 72]

Thanks for all these suggestions guys!
I have Goodrich hoses and kunifer lines and the pedal bushes are fine too.
I think the next action will be to check the pushrod clearance!

[DMT]

Chris, when you bled the brakes did you use a suction method or the old normal pumping the pedal? I found that i could not get the air out of the tandem master cylinder without using suction first, then the pedal to finish.
Dave

[mole42]

the pedal bushes are fine too.

I found the pedal bushes were good, but the pin that connects the pedal to the pushrod was quite worn, and the hole in the pedal was worn.

I made a new pin on my lathe and reamed the pedal and the new pushrod to fit.

[Ceejay 72]

Dave - I used the usual pedal pumping method. I'll have a look at suction equipment!

[Alacrity]

I fitted a new TRW master cyl to my car when I used it for a summer pre stripping it down for a resto & that had a lot of pedal travel. I have a 2nd Stag that is being kept as a reference car for the resto & the master cyl failed so swopped it for the new one from the stripped car - immediately it had more brake travel than before the master cyl failed. IMO (assuming there is no freeplay anywhere) its the master cyl. I have bought a very expensive Lockheed one to go back on the resto so we will see.