Hydraulically Challenged

[2SwissTriumphs]

Hi Everyone,

I´ve been in the garage this evening removing more parts from my restoration project. Namely the master cylinders, brake servo and clutch slave cylinder.

Unfortunately, they are not in good condition. The master cylinders have damaged bores due to the long time the car has sat in storage (nearly 30 years !), the clutch slave cylinder is totally seized and the servo contains quite a bit of brake fluid.

As far as I know, the clutch slave cylinder is the same as those fitted to TR6´s, so a replacement can be had fairly easily. However, I´m not sure of the availability of the other parts. What are my chances of finding spares or is it time to look into getting the cylinders sleeved ? Can the servo be rebuilt ?

The car is a LHD Mk1 Pi.

Regards,
Martin.

[Dave B]

The clutch master cylinder for the mk1 seems to be well catered for on eBay, assuming they are the same as rhd, brake master cylinders a bit thin on the ground although seal kits are available. Servos and repair kits are a lot harder to find new.

[tony]

I'd look into resleeving. There are people over here that sleeve in stainless and rekit them for a cheaper price than replacing with unknown quality (chinese?) after market parts.
Tony.

[Mike Stevens]

Being a Mk1 PI, but LHD, does it still have the remote brake servo, or is it conjoined with the master cylinder? Also does it have a dual circuit brake system? I know a lot of LHD cars did, but not sure about Mk1.

I think resleeving must be a good candidate. You get to keep the original parts too - well, from the outside anyway!

Cheers,
Mike.

[kevinw]

There is a chap called Ian Wannacott (I might not have spelt that correctly) who has a business, the name of whihc I annoyingly cannot remember based in Kenton, near Exeter who supplies common hydraulic parts and if he can't supply it, has a very good resleeving service. I've had a number of very esoteric parts sorted by him - for example, the brake master cylinder of a Bedford OB bus and clutch slave cylinder for a Bristol MW coach.

No connection with his business, other than a very satisfied customer.

Kevin

[2SwissTriumphs]

Thanks to all for help and advice

Being a Mk1 PI, but LHD, does it still have the remote brake servo, or is it conjoined with the master cylinder? Also does it have a dual circuit brake system? I know a lot of LHD cars did, but not sure about Mk1.

Cheers,
Mike.

Mike, the car has a remote servo with it´s own cylinder and is mounted to a bracket on the rear end of the battery tray. It´s a single line system.
I will look up the re-sleeving service in Kenton but if anyone else can recommend a company, i´d be very grateful !

Regards,
Martin.

[Alan Chatterton]

Mike weaver used someone very good to do his braking system as it was unique so had to be rebuilt rather than replaced.
Can't find who as I'm on a phone not a pc, but a trawl through his blog I'm sure names them.

[TRPi]

Hi

Because I have gone same route earlier I would like to advice the hydraulics seal kit available for the remote servo cylinder used in 2.5Pi Mk1 LDH cars:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1969-77-Rover ... 4ac970f36b

It is a "1969 -'77 Rover P6 2000, 2200 Lockheed servo seal kit" on ebay. Related stuff is available from same source that is actually http://www.powertrackbrakes.co.uk/ .

In my project, I had to re-use the old servo vacuum diaphragm rubber.

Cheers,
JS
&
another LHD 2.5Pi mk1

[2SwissTriumphs]

Thanks JS - that´s a very useful link. I´ll get in touch with Powertrack and order up a kit as soon as I know the cylinder is serviceable. I shall have to drain the brake fluid out of the servo itself and check the diaphragm first though

I´ve dismantled and honed the master cylinders today, with mixed results. The clutch master has survived the long lay-up and just needs to be cleaned and rebuilt with a seal kit. However, the brake master cylinder is not so good. The piston was very stiff to move but eventually came free, leaving a thin ring of corrosion in the aluminium body. After approx 5 minutes of honing, this is no longer visable to the naked eye but can just be sensed with the tip of a finger inserted down the bore. As the chance of finding another cylinder in better condition seems very slim, I am tempted to put a seal kit into it and try it. If it´s going to have to be re-sleeved anyway, I might as well try my luck.

Or is that a daft thing to do ?

Regards,
Martin.

[TRPi]

Hi

If the rough area in the brake master cylinder is outer than where piston seal stops then it's safe just to replace the piston seal. Anyway, I honed two rusted master cylinders and used them with old piston seal, and even mixed the old piston between two master cylinders. They didn't leak, but I will replace the seal when I eventually put my car to roadworthy condition. Of course you should be careful because there are steep hills in your country. Thus, it would be better to have a dual circuit system although handbrake can be used in emergency.
I guess you are not going to use your car daily and you can observe the brake hydraulics behaviour long enough before taking any longer trips.

Regarding http://www.powertrackbrakes.co.uk/ I found it easier to buy via their Ebay offering. If they start mess things, you should state that you are buying seals for Lockheed servo LR18230 with boost ratio 4.25:1, slave cylinder bore 5/8" and reaction piston bore 3/8".

Cheers,
JS