Welcome to the Nissan Patrol forum. To post a question and to see less adds on the forum then you will have to register
first. We are an easy going friendly forum so join in the conversations and feel free to ask any questions.
Become a forum sponsor for only $20 and see no adds with faster page loading times and many extras benefits.
Step 2: New Boosters, Master Cylinders, lines etc.
This is new territory for me. The old brake master had been leaking for a long time, brake fluid had eaten off the paint a long tìme ago and the booster was rusted out. The fluid in both clutch and brakes was almost black. The clutch slave felt pretty rough which was probably contributing to the brutal clutch feel.
Did some reading that suggested if you have a 3" exhaust, the pipes are a little close to the clutch slave and over time it cooks them. While replacing the slave cylinder I chucked on a heat shield.
Had some trouble bleeding the brakes. The soft lines appeared a bit swollen up on the rear, a bleed nipple was blocked with crud (the rubber caps are long gone), and the proportioning valve was gummed up and stuck, as well as not being re-mounted for the suspension lift. The rear drums may be aftermarket, requires further looking into. I wonder if it was crabbing out after the lift kit misaligned the proportioning valve arm and someone has tried to fix it by putting larger drums on?
Disassembled, cleaned and reassembled the proportioning valve (after seeing what a new one cost), then decided to order all new flexible lines, as well as the flexible line to the clutch slave.
Took it for a test drive and... The brakes locked on. Realised I hadn't set up the pushrod lengths correctly on the boosters. Set them to the numbers in the Haynes manual and... They locked on again. I think this may be due to purchasing a non-OEM master which may have a different depth to the plunger: I had no freeplay in the pedal.
So I took the master off again, measured the lengths and depths of the pushrod, plunger etc and worked out the length to set the right gap.
Bled it all (again... Starting to question why I'm putting myself through this at this point, questioning whether I made a massive mistake taking on this re-build) and now the pedal goes to the floor. Disassemble the brake booster/master AGAIN, check all my adjustments, reassemble and bleed a fourth time. Pedal still goes to the floor! Around this time I notice a wet patch on the cardboard sheets I've been using to lay on under the car. I have a thorough look under the front passenger side with my worklight and notice on the rigid line there's a small worn and damaged patch that appears to have been squirting fluid.
I believe everything happens for a reason and it seems all my screwing around with the brakes, bleeding, pumping etc caused this damaged line to finally split and start squirting fluid, thankfully while I was working on the brakes and all my attention was on them. Imagine if it had gone on the freeway when traffic stopped in front of me!
Ordered new rigid brakeline assemblies for the front. This put a pause on things as it was over Christmas. When they came, re-bled the system (Attempt #5) and things finally felt right. I probably had the booster set right on attempt 2 but hadn't realised the brakeline was leaking under pressure at that point.
...That adventure over, I adjusted the clutch pedal. riction point is no longer in the floor, it's in fact a little higher than I'd like it. More tweaking to go there.
Reply With Quote