Brake cylinder sleeving

Wouldn't it be easier to buy new cylinders? I would have thought that the MkVI would use standard Lucas/Girling parts. I know the S1 does.

Alex

Past Parts of Bury st Edmunds do a re-sleeving service for brake cylinders etc.

AIUI, the only new cylinders now available are reproductions in cast aluminium, and I'm told the quality of the castings, in particular the finish that can be achieved to the bores, would not have been approved by Sir Henry. And they're around £250. And I've just found the wheel cylinders do need doing, too.

I had an S1 years ago and seem to remember not being able to get cylinders from my large local factor. Or brake shoes, come to that. I managed to get linings and rivet them on though, at a fraction of the Bentley prices for shoes.

And, of course, the S1 has twice as many master cylinders and three times the number of wheel cylinders as the Mk VI.

Theo Hendrickson does S / Cloud exchange shoes at 65 quid for 4, but next time I need anything as large and expensive I'll talk to Saftek to see what they can do.

Explain? The S1 had twin circuit brakes, but IIRC twin trailing on the front so four cylinders and normal double acting cylinders on the rear making 6. (And mechanical to the rear) Had the Mk VI just one double acting per front wheel with mechanical only to the back?

It was a long time ago, but I think R-R charged about 40 quid for a set of new shoes - no exchange - which would make 65 quid somewhat of a bargain. I paid over 15 quid trade just for linings. In the early '70s. Other surprise was 12 quid for one exhaust valve...

That must have provided plenty of stopping power in reverse...

Ron Robinson

Indeed. The reason for twin trailing was the resistance to fade since the self servo action of leading just wasn't needed with that powerful mechanical servo. The self adjusting mechanism was interesting too - no fancy cams but just two washers either side of the shoe running in a slot and spring pressure to provide the friction. Worked beautifully.

The early Rover P4s (75, 90, 105) had twin trailing front brakes too (later ones had discs). Yes, it was very easy to lock the wheels in reverse. But going forwards, it worked very well. The brake shoes were huge - large diameter and enormous width - so you got a lot of braking but virtually no wheel locking, even in bad weather conditions. Not ideal for being towed though. Without the vacuum servo assistance from a running engine, putting enough pressure on the brake pedal to stop it made your eyes bulge!

Jim

Peugeot used a two trailing shoe arrangement on at least some 404's because of its anti-fade qualities. It might have been made by Bendix and rather naturally had a very effective servo. The cunning bit was that the shoes were arranged so that they were trailing in reverse as well - I can't remember exactly how they did this, but I think it depended on the shoe moving around a bit after a change of direction so that it picked up on another set of pivots and actuators IYSWIM. Normally this worked pretty well, but one soon got the hang of just gently applying the brake after a direction change so that the shoes knew what they should be doing.. One dose of that servo acting on two leading shoes was quite enough. They were very good brakes though, plenty of stopping power and no fade that I ever experienced.

Ron Robinson

That's right: and no direct mechanical connection from the brake pedal to the master cylinder, so the front brakes are only applied when the gearbox-driven mechanical servo gives the master cylinder a shove. Shall I let the MoT tester put the front wheels on the rollers and wonder why he doesn't get a reading?

Now about 18 quid, but a distributor cap, sets of points, and a rotor arm will set you back around 240 quid.

Heh heh - had fun with that at my local MOT station. Other thing of course is the brakes don't work (apart from the rear mechanical connection) with the car stationery, so put it into drive if an auto with the engine on fast idle when cold and it tends to go off by itself followed by standing on its nose when you panic brake...and then make a mental note to keep the rear brakes in perfect adjustment at all times. ;-)

Ouch. Sounds like a conversion to an electronic distributor off a more common car might be the way forward...

BTW, I've got a mint driver's handbook for an S1. What would it be worth?