Corroded brake pipes

If they're that bad, change the lot. It won't cost you much more for the parts.

The local garage isn't going to do anything different than you're looking at ending up having to but they'll trouser you ALOT more and the pipe will end up being replaced anyway.

Change the cylinder as well, it's under a tenner & probably near the end of its life anyway.

Cut the pipe off close to the cylinder and pull the cyl through the backplate with the bit of pipe attached. Then you can put it in the vice and removing the pipe stub will be easy (er).

Steve

Probably cheaper to just buy new wheel cylinders and cut through the pipe

- they're not usually expensive.

You can even put the old pipe nut in the vice & unscrew the cylinder.

Thanks everyone, but keep the suggestions coming. The wheel cylinders are £15.28 from GSF, so £30 for a pair, and probably dearer from the local shop I'd have to use, as I don't have a backup vehicle.

Might try and get the wheel cylinder off and try your vice idea Steve. I've plusgassed the bolts, but to be honest, I can't see anywhere for it to get through, as the bolts are obviously flat to the backplate. Am I wasting time and Plusgas trying this. Is an overnight soak not worth trying for that reason.

I should of course say I meant pull the cylinder, with its bit of pipe, from the backplate towards you after undoing the bolts (probly 10mm spanner), removing the drum and easing the shoes away from the ends of the cylinder.

HTH

Steve

Are there obstacles so close to the stubborn nut that a regular nut splitter (with a complete ring) cannot be placed round the nut properly? There are splitters with incomplete rings, like "?". You may just be lucky to be able to avoid the obstacles by judicial positioning of this gap.

How easy is it to remove the backplate from the suspension? If you can do that and cut the pipe you may then be in a better position to get a drill or similar onto the offending parts for removal.

IMO the bleed nipple shearing off makes the cylinder scrap; even in my early impecunious days I had no luck trying to drill them out to save buying new ones. You therefore should replace both sides as a matter of course so you will have to get the cylinders off. IME even on old cars the securing bolts will come undone, in your case no real problem if they shear. The cylinder should come out through the backplate even with the pipe attached once you've removed the shoes.

When doing a job like this you have to work back along the system until you come to a union that will easily undo. The hardest job, apart from bleeding the system afterwards :), is making up the pipes that you have had to cut to get the cylinder out; if you aren't confident about this take the bits to a garage as a pattern.

Be thankful you haven't got rear calipers :)

The nut referred to is the hexagon part of a union which fits round the pipe and goes into the wheel cylinder - rather like a bolt with a hole down the middle. A nut splitter won't be much use for this.

Alot more time consuming than cutting and replacing a pretty much shagged brakepipe.

I thought the problem was getting the cylinders off the plate as well?

Thanks gain for all the replies, although Google seem to have lost a lot of them, so I've only just seen the recent ones, as I had been looking on the Google newsgroup only.

Anyway, I've managed to get the wheel cylinder and pipe off. The socket was a nice snug fit on the bolt heads, and I was very careful (used a T bar).

I'm off to see if my local shop is open to get a new wheel cylinder, as there appears to be no chance of getting the union undone, even in a vice.

One very worrying thing has occurred to me though. When I removed the pipe, NO BRAKE FLUID CAME OUT ! Do I have a blockage further up the system ?

Or a leak...

Probably the pressure equalising valve that delivers reduced pressure to the rear cylinders to prevent lockup.

The message from Conor contains these words:

Or the brake limiter's doing its job - if you've jacked it up so that the suspension is at full extension then it's likely the valve's completely shut.

Thanks Chris and Guy.

Before I went to the car shop, I thought I'd give it one last try with the wheel cylinder held in a metal vice.

Problem was there's not much to get hold of on a w cyl, and I'm not very strong armed anyway, so I hit one side of it with a heavy hammer. I saw it move, so hit it some more, and it moved some more, but I just assumed it was turning in the vice.

Anyway, took it out and tried it with a pair of pliers, and to my amazement it turned. Thanks to Steve and Duncanwood for suggesting this.

The shop was shut though, so I'll have to wait till tomorrow to put it all back. I only have one brake hose clamp, so I'll have to renew one side of pipe at a time.

Peel the dustcovers back & check it's not leaking, if it isn't don't push the pistons out unless you fancy replacing the seals . If it is buy a new one.