MollyNomad
Well-Known Member
- Posts
- 496
- Location
- Scotland
Okay brakes have been bled on the TD4.
As the whole of the rear brakes/brake lines were replaced I wasn’t expecting it to be a straight forwards experience and that’s pretty much how things went..Anyhoo ‘which method’ did I use..?
ALL OF THEM BASICALLY.
No single method worked on its own in entirety.
Began with (unintentionally) a gravity bleed me forgetting to tighten the offside rear bleed nipple.. at least until I noticed the small puddle under the car on that side..Nowt arriving via the longer and more convoluted pipe work to nearside bleed nipple. Adding the Gunsons system also did nothing to achieve that. Slight panic ensued thinking I had maybe pinched the pipe work somewhere on that side.. but decided to eliminate that by checking the connectors at the ‘modulator’(sorry don’t know the tech term for that thing..) and found it to be ‘dry’. A check of a compression fitting (yep!!) under the car revealed that at that point there was no fluid there either! Got a syringe out, couldn’t reach into the modulator connection to really do anything, so just reattached it. Spent about 10 mins stumbling around the garage wondering what to do next and eventually decided I’d do the ‘single person bleed option even if only to get the fluid ‘movin’! Taking it steady I pumped the brake pedal slowly. A soft pedal initially stiffened until it felt ‘normal’. Strangely very little fluid was put into the system by this action. Again ‘pinched’ pipework raised its head.. but I thought I had ‘done summin’ positive so checked the bleed nipple/collector pipework on the NSR and noticed a small amount of fluid. Retiring to the compression fitting revealed a positive flow of fluid. Now getting somewhere I refitted the Gunsons system (at 1.4 bar/20lb as per bottle instructions and .. nothing.. still wouldn’t bleed.. so Gunsons was again removed.. what next??
I remembered I had a vacuum pump for testing vacuum operated systems but also can be used for brake bleeding.. I vaguely remember using that in my LT35 van.. so…
A couple of pumps on that revealed a vey patchy amount of fluid coming through. I pulled a very small amount into the plastic receptacle on that device.. and re attached the Gunsons… with some success.. but wait … there’s a ‘procedure’ to follow!
A quick check of the Haynes manual and on here too.. and confirmation of the FULL brake bleed procedure I resorted to bleeding the front left/front right rear left/rear right and hey presto the brakes were bled. Faffing around for 2 hours but a success … of sorts. I had a leak at my offside hardline to flexi hose (a compression fitting using the original Land Rover part) it’s ‘tight’ but weeped ever so slightly. My new pipework is cunifer and the flare is made on a Vice mounted flaring system(basically a professional flaring tool not a rubbish item) but obviously cunifer is harder than copper/softer than steel … I have re tightened all of the connectors and this seems to have solved the issue. Maybe these things need this process to help them re seat and accept the opposite connector more readily? The new brake pipes from the drum to the flexi have been removed and the old copper ones refitted(the new ones leaked despite the Vice mounted tool making perfect flares/an alignment issue maybe/pipes just too short/connectors not seating correctly. ?) Anyhoo the coppers ones don’t leak!
So a result in many ways. Before I head out onto the open road I will re bleed the system for ‘peace of mind’ and ‘practice’..
Next step is the refitting of the fuel pump/filter cradle and an attempt at silencer repair/exhaust fitting and maybe a start up? Prop shaft and VCU can wait a wee while but will be refitted prior to road/MOT/wheel Alignment all in the future.
Some of the photos show the double flare compression fitting test results. They look very good but compared to the original steel flare have a slightly higher profile(.3 mm maybe) The other photos just show the random chaos that exists on the floor etc of the garage.
As the whole of the rear brakes/brake lines were replaced I wasn’t expecting it to be a straight forwards experience and that’s pretty much how things went..Anyhoo ‘which method’ did I use..?
ALL OF THEM BASICALLY.
No single method worked on its own in entirety.
Began with (unintentionally) a gravity bleed me forgetting to tighten the offside rear bleed nipple.. at least until I noticed the small puddle under the car on that side..Nowt arriving via the longer and more convoluted pipe work to nearside bleed nipple. Adding the Gunsons system also did nothing to achieve that. Slight panic ensued thinking I had maybe pinched the pipe work somewhere on that side.. but decided to eliminate that by checking the connectors at the ‘modulator’(sorry don’t know the tech term for that thing..) and found it to be ‘dry’. A check of a compression fitting (yep!!) under the car revealed that at that point there was no fluid there either! Got a syringe out, couldn’t reach into the modulator connection to really do anything, so just reattached it. Spent about 10 mins stumbling around the garage wondering what to do next and eventually decided I’d do the ‘single person bleed option even if only to get the fluid ‘movin’! Taking it steady I pumped the brake pedal slowly. A soft pedal initially stiffened until it felt ‘normal’. Strangely very little fluid was put into the system by this action. Again ‘pinched’ pipework raised its head.. but I thought I had ‘done summin’ positive so checked the bleed nipple/collector pipework on the NSR and noticed a small amount of fluid. Retiring to the compression fitting revealed a positive flow of fluid. Now getting somewhere I refitted the Gunsons system (at 1.4 bar/20lb as per bottle instructions and .. nothing.. still wouldn’t bleed.. so Gunsons was again removed.. what next??
I remembered I had a vacuum pump for testing vacuum operated systems but also can be used for brake bleeding.. I vaguely remember using that in my LT35 van.. so…
A couple of pumps on that revealed a vey patchy amount of fluid coming through. I pulled a very small amount into the plastic receptacle on that device.. and re attached the Gunsons… with some success.. but wait … there’s a ‘procedure’ to follow!
A quick check of the Haynes manual and on here too.. and confirmation of the FULL brake bleed procedure I resorted to bleeding the front left/front right rear left/rear right and hey presto the brakes were bled. Faffing around for 2 hours but a success … of sorts. I had a leak at my offside hardline to flexi hose (a compression fitting using the original Land Rover part) it’s ‘tight’ but weeped ever so slightly. My new pipework is cunifer and the flare is made on a Vice mounted flaring system(basically a professional flaring tool not a rubbish item) but obviously cunifer is harder than copper/softer than steel … I have re tightened all of the connectors and this seems to have solved the issue. Maybe these things need this process to help them re seat and accept the opposite connector more readily? The new brake pipes from the drum to the flexi have been removed and the old copper ones refitted(the new ones leaked despite the Vice mounted tool making perfect flares/an alignment issue maybe/pipes just too short/connectors not seating correctly. ?) Anyhoo the coppers ones don’t leak!
So a result in many ways. Before I head out onto the open road I will re bleed the system for ‘peace of mind’ and ‘practice’..
Next step is the refitting of the fuel pump/filter cradle and an attempt at silencer repair/exhaust fitting and maybe a start up? Prop shaft and VCU can wait a wee while but will be refitted prior to road/MOT/wheel Alignment all in the future.
Some of the photos show the double flare compression fitting test results. They look very good but compared to the original steel flare have a slightly higher profile(.3 mm maybe) The other photos just show the random chaos that exists on the floor etc of the garage.
