Bleedin brakes

My bleedin brakes refuse to hold pressure in the system, despite the fact or maybe because of the fact that I replaced every componant, everything brake line, flexable hoses ,wheel cylinders and master cylinder is new as part of a rebuild, I have no leaks that I can see and I have bled the system starting at the back 4 or 5 times the only wheel that refuses to bleed correctly is the front drivers side but still no pressure, any ideas welcome

How are you bleeding? Using pedal or pressure bleeder? A pressure bleeder is most useful for one man operation and for filling empty systems.

Try taking the flexible hose off and see if you get fluid out of the end of it.....carefully

I have known some very small leaks that allow air in but no fluid out, so it maybe that you have a leak like that.

Have you adjusted the brake shoes properly?? - do you need to pump them to get them to work? Try adjusting the little square headed screw on the back of the brake plates, first adjust them tight till the you can feel them grab when you turn the drum, then just back off a bit till you can turn them freely. See if this helps!

Just thought (reminded by above ^^^) have you got twin front shoes/cylinders?

I have had trouble with those. The copper pipe linking the two cylinders is prone to cracking from work hardening (IME).

You also need to adjust those shoes individually. Get one shoe to lock drum, back of a notch and then do the other.

i had this exact same problem many years ago on my old swb

i had replaced verything just like you have done and couldnt get them to hold pressure what i had done was put the big return spring from shoe to shoe instead of shoe to backing plate and becouse is was over strached it would pull them together and away from the drum
move the spring and my troubles were over

check them you never know

I get the same problem every time the fluid is changed with the lwb brakes on my 88 series 1.

All I do is bleed the system then park the shed on a steep bank at the back of work, one hour nose up and then one hour nose down.

Brakes are good then until I next touch the fluid.

Its just another idea.

i did exactly as pobby did,check your springs..........i know it sounds improbable but it will cause these symptoms

bleading series brakes is a bastard, clamp off the rear hose and one front, slacken of the ajduster on the remaining one and bleed it, re adjust and try brake, get one right then clamp that and move on

Try wedging the brake pedal down with a block of wood between the seat box and the pedal overnight. Worked for me.

Just spend the 15 quid or whatever on a Gunsons Eazibleed,and use about 10psi.Makes the job a doddle,flushes the system nicely and saves any damage to the master cyl.Not worth doing any other way.

clamp all four hoses if you then have a pedal release one at a time trying the pedal after each till u find the troublesome one. Then just open the bleeder with the resovoir cap removed and just watch dont press the pedal..after a few mins (2-5) it should start to drip leave for a further 2-5 mins tighten and remove remaining clamps should have a good padal with no creep. If no fluid comes out at all then you have a blockage to that wheel

if everything has been replaced and they been blead multipul times i very much doubt it is air in the system as long as your using a pressure bleed it should have all come out fisrt time

Gunsons Eazibleed is good, but still undo adjusters, this is so the pistons in the cylinders are pushed in, or you will get air traped

Nice one thankyou I am off to have another go , have got hold of an easy bleed kit , will check all of the above and try again

whinding back the adjusters isnt going to do anything
all you will do is pull the adjuster cam away from the shoes
the cam doesnt pull anything back it just pushes the shoes out against the drum

dobby dont be a prat, the adjuster will pull the piston out of the wheel cylinder. this will alow a space that air can be traped in, undoing the adjuster will push the piston in leaving no room for air, there are two types of adjuster, one pulls the shoes out and the piston folows, as in a land rover, and one that pushes the shoe back,

Agree with all the above but can also add a tip from an old guy who used to work at landrover. Front brakes can be a pig in retaing air in pockets where the cylinders are on an angle. His tip was to push the pistons as far back into the cylinders as possible and clamp them - use strong wire or g clamps. This reduces the space for pockets to collect. Mike

Update on the brakes, I tried everything including the easy bleed kit. sure the fluid came through clean but still lost pressure after a short while, in the end I have removed the copper brake lines and fitted a set of flexable brake lines, I measured the length of run using a bit of cable and a local company made a set of 6 hoses with the required ends. fitting took 5 mins and bleeding another 5 mins, what a differance worked first time, I think the fault must have been in the after market non original brake pipe kit that I used. the flexable pipes were the type used on racing bikes and cars so were made to a higher quality but still cost about the same as the copper kit, I have also now used a flexable on the clutch as it means I can run from the master clyinder straight to the slave.

Glad it's sorted