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Front brake job - any advice?

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Whether or not you need brake work is kind of difficult to assess. The pictures don't show excessive brake drag on the rotors. Do they tend to pull to one side when braking? Is the rub you speak of causing quite a bit of drag on the wheel?

Under normal conditions I believe a little rubbing is not unusual but it is also common for the brake cylinders to have rust in them and bad seals that don't release the pistons properly.

Kurt.
 
Car stops straight. The rub is definitely noticeable when you lift the wheel and spin it. It may be academic at this point: I found more brake fluid on the ground this morning, indicating that I do have a leak from somewhere. The brake hose did look dry-rotted to me, so that's probably a good place to start.
 
I bled the troublesome left front brake tonight. I was rewarded with a bunch of air bubbles on the first and second pedal pumps, nothing but fluid on the third, and then a stiff brake pedal once I closed the bleed valve off again. I still have the dragging issue, so I'm pretty much back at square one, but at least the car is now safe to drive to the shop. Dragging brakes are better than no brakes.
 
When you say "dragging" do you mean they are hard to turn or that you hear some rubbing?
 
The rotors and the wheels are definitely not spinning freely as I think they should. I do understand some rubbing may be normal, but this seems to be more than that, at least compared to other cars with front disc brakes.
 
I'm back to Brake Hoses. Max useful life is 10 years or shorter. Pull the one caliper that got accidentally split, install new O Rings and Seals along with hoses and you should be good to go. Or better yet go rebuilt/new calipers. If there is a leak it stands to reason that the MC cannot pull the pistons back. And I have twice experienced an issue with Brake Hoses.
 
Well, the only thing that retracts the piston on those calipers is the rubber fluid seal. The system was simple and effective but can't retract much. The last ones I rebuilt were a bear because you can't get the original seal kits anymore. If you decide on rebuild I think I would go for trading them to a reputable English car shop. I'm sure there is some folks that can be recommended by this group but I'm not sure I would trust the E-bay sellers or regular car parts dealers to do a good job.

Kurt.
 
The shop I'm going to take the car to specializes in vintage and custom automobiles (and they are close to my house), so hopefully, they will have some degree of care and expertise that is above and beyond your typical garage.
 
Jim_Gruber said:
I'm back to Brake Hoses. Max useful life is 10 years or shorter. Pull the one caliper that got accidentally split, install new O Rings and Seals along with hoses and you should be good to go. Or better yet go rebuilt/new calipers. If there is a leak it stands to reason that the MC cannot pull the pistons back. And I have twice experienced an issue with Brake Hoses.
Click to expand...

...and its Jim Gruber for the win!

I just received word from the shop -- left front brake hose is bad and that was causing my headaches with the left front.

Sometimes having a different set of eyes looking at the car is helpful, too: My rear axle seals were both leaking and had fouled the rear brakes, so they shop is going to fix the seals, turn the drums, replace the shoes and then bleed the whole system. It's going to be interesting to see what kind of gain I get in braking performance when all is said and done.
 
Please have them replace all 3 hoses if that is the case. Safety Fast!!!!
 
I was replacing brakes on a Mini just this evening. We already found the front hoses were nearly collapsed internally. Tonight we found the right rear hose was totally collapsed and had been causing the drums to be "stuck on". I just wish it were easier to get the darn hoses disconnected. Even with good flare nut wrenches we ended up having to resort to heat, penetrating oil, and lots of muffled swearing to get things apart.
 
I got Baby Blue back today from the shop. They did a real nice job with the brakes. Brake pedal is nice and firm with good modulation. The bill also came in under their estimate, which I've never seen happen with any of my cars at any shop. Scratch one more item off the to-do list.
 
Woohoo! :banana:
 
dklawson said:
I just wish it were easier to get the darn hoses disconnected. Even with good flare nut wrenches we ended up having to resort to heat, penetrating oil, and lots of muffled swearing to get things apart.
Click to expand...

There is, change them on a regular basis (7-10 years or so) not just when they go bad. :cool-new:
 
That sounds easy enough. Unfortunately when you buy a project car (or any older car for that matter) you are not in control of when the hoses were last replaced.
 
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