Amoung other issues, and new one has arose.
The brake pedal will not depress. It only moves 1/4" or so like the system is frozen. I've had it go all the way to the floor, but not this. It's been sitting for quite sometime and has not been started. How do I "unfreeze"

Thanks for all the previous help.
Tim

Your best bet would be to pull the master cylinder off and rebuild. Chances are, it is the rubber ring at the end of the plunger. It gums up and finally freezes to the side wall, making the whole cylinder freeze up.

The other seals and rubber from wheel cylinders, calipers, lines to both, and anything else through the whole system that is rubber should be replaced. It should be done every 2-5 years depending how much you use them. Get a workshop manual, read up, and take your time to make sure everything is clean. Good luck. Not too hard to do if you take it one thing at a time.

While you're at it - check out the steel lines as well and re-do unless they are in perfect shape. Water can rust them out from the inside and salt corrode from the outside, although with dual circuit (providing it is working properly) the risk of losing all braking is reduced. Don't want to find out there is a weak spot when panic stopping. Remember these lines are nearly 40 years old. You can buy a kit of pre-made lines (expensive, but worth it in time especially if you haven't made brake lines before) and swap out one at a time. With rebuilt cyls and hoses your brakes will feel great and work correctly. Happy Stopping!

cfrick

Thanks guys, I really appreciated the input. I’m fairly new to this site and it’s great. It started with an inquiry about my starter and got some great advice from John about the problem. That led into the brakes while trying to start manually.

Just a FYI: I was thinking how long the can has been sitting. I think the last time it was out was in 2008. Yoi!(a term used in Pgh Pa). I didn’t think it was that long so it makes sense about the seals and rubber going bad.

I’m sure I’ll be back on again with some Q&A. I can think of some things now.

Thanks again,
Tim

Good luck...

Tim, from the Yoi(Myron-we miss you) you must or have been near Pittsburgh. If so you should seriously consider joining the Western PA Triumph Club. website is wptriumph.org.

Wray,

Thanks for the suggestion. Yep, I’m from Oakmont PA and an avid Steeler fan. Miss Myron too. I’ve had the car for over 27yrs and was a member of the WPTA for quite sometime. I’ve been out for a number of years for various reasons but have an application sitting on my desk and considering joining again.

My problem in the past was, I could not find anyone willing to make a house call that lived relatively close, to look things over and get some input. If one is employed, has a TR and family, time is limited and I understand that. I’ve done a lot of work over the years and learned much, but I’m hardly a mechanic. So we’ll see where that goes.

Tim

fyi: have recd rebuild kit for the master cylinder and calipers. thanks for all the help, we'll see how it turns out.

Hey Tim,

The rebuild is not too difficult. Just a couple things to look for...

Take a close look inside the cylinder when it's apart to check for corrosion pitting. Very slight pitting can be tolerated, but it's better to replace it if the pitting is severe. Finally, look closely at the little valve at the end of the piston assembly. This valve does not come in the rebuild kit, but it often gets damaged if the piston hits the bottom of the stroke too hard.

Good luck,,
John

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John
Southlake, TX
'60 TR3A
'55 TR2

John,

Got the new starter, but not installed as yet. Did clean and rebuilt the master cylinder (if that what its called for what you get) and ready to go in.
There does not seem to be much to the calliper rebuild. A dust cover and I think a seal ring. My concern is while reading the manual, is that there may be
difficulty removing the piston. It seems that you really have to read between the lines. !

My favorite way is using an air hose. You just have to wrap eveything up, as the piston comes out pretty fast! In the calipers you have to look for the pitting around the piston, instead of the caliper bore. I had to replace all my pistons...

John

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John
Southlake, TX
'60 TR3A
'55 TR2

Got the starter in, rebuilt the master cylinder, but can't for the life of me loosen or even come close to removing the caliper mounting bolts. Sprayed with wd40 & liquid wrench, but they won't budge.
Any easy suggestions.

The bolts may just be very tight as they have a high torque setting. Be sure you have a proper fitting socket (6 point is best) and you may need a breaker bar. First you can try tapping the heads of the bolts. Sometimes this will help the oil penetrate. Next you could try heating the heads with a propane torch (or MAPP). Get them good and hot and then let them cool off and try loosening. You may need to do this a couple times to let the expansion cycle work its way down to the threads.

OF COURSE BE CAREFUL IF USING A TORCH! WATCH FOR SPILLED BRAKE FLUID FLAMMABLE AND COMBUSTIBLE ITEMS HOSES AND WIRING.

Might want to crack the bleeder just in case. don't want the fluid to expand an crack the housing.

...and turn the bolt in the "tighten" direction first. It often breaks the corrosion bond, allowing the penetrant to soak in. Then go in the "loosen" direction.
Dave

Thanks guys,

I guess after 3days of spraying with wd40 and squirting with liquid wrench, it finally broke loose. I was a happy camper.
What can I clean the caliper with to get the gunk and grease off with. It's out, might as well clean it up before new rubber fittings go in.
Never had them off.

Gunk is a great degreaser which you can either buy in a spray or a liquid bottle which you can brush on. Put it on the part you want to degrease and let it sit for about 10-15 minutes and wash it off with water. It will remove all the grease although you might need a 2nd application.

As for removing the pistons, if they won't pop out under air pressure or if you don;t have access to a compressor, you might want to fashion a puller/pusher like I did using a large metal vice grip locking C clamp with regular tips.(I used a model 11R by Irwin.) While you will ruin the tips of the clamp, they will still be quite useable for future clamping purposes.
What you have to do is grind or cut out the metal on inside of the tips so as to remove enough metal so that the clamps no longer interfer with the caliper body when you close the jaws close around the cylinder. Then using a dremel fashion a pointed notch in either tip. The purpose of the pointed notch is so that your grips will fit inside the narrow depression ring at the end of the cylinder (This notch is there to hold the end of the flexible rubber dust ring which keeps dirt, crud and grease from forming on the walls of your piston.

Once you get the fit right, you will be able to remove a cylinder in about 10 seconds by first gripping the clinder by it's slot and then lightly tapping the end of the vise grip with a small hammer forcing it out of the caliper body.

Note: Do not clamp too hard since you can deform the piston which will make it alot more difficult to remove.

I also ground down the height of the tip although I can't recall exactly why I did that, perhaps it was to allow for more clearance when the cylinder reaches the one on the opposite side on removal.

Also someone metionned that you should change your hydraulic rubbers every 2-3 years. There is no reason to have to change your rubbers for at least 10 years after a rebuild especially your car is not a daily driver. (I just redid mine after 15 years and over 30K miles.) Also, if you are doing a total rebuild of your front and rear brakes, clean out the cannister and lines of any old brake fluid (spray a couple of shots of brake remover into each line and clear with an blast of air through the line. do this a few times to be sure that everything is cleaned out) and go to Silicone brake fluid which will not attack rubber like regular brake fluid plus it won't attack your paint if you happen to spill or have leakage around your brake canister.

I also forgot to mention that some folks put a banjo bolt in the caliper brake line hole to block it and use a grease gun on the nipple forcing grease into the caliper which in turn forces the pistons to open. I've never tried it but some have said that it works great although you need to make sure to remove and clean all traces of grease in the caliper housing before you rebuild. The problem that I have encountered using compressed air is that if the pistons are seized in the caliper, no matter how much pressure you run into the caliper, inevitably one piston will free up and pop out before the other so you only get one cylinder extracted and you are left to deal with how to get the 2nd one out.

One other note of rebuilding the caliper, the caliper rebuild kit that I had recently purchased did not contain any assembly grease as previous kits did. Assembly grease really does make the assembly process way easier since the rubbers are not slippery and insertion of the pistons and dust seals are much more difficult without some form of lubrication. I had some grease left over from a previous rebuild which I used but I would imagine that you could use some good old fashionned vasiline for the job. Using your finger, just dab a tiny amount around the inside face of the newly inserted rubber seal in the caliper housing and then dab a small amount on the inside face of the dust seal. Insert the bottom of the dust into the small lip surrounding the piston opening of the caliper so it is completely snapped into place. Next place the piston into the opening of the dust seal and put a thumb on either side of the top edge of the piston (or grip the piston with the home made vise grip I described in the earlier post) and rock it from side to side ever so slightly, you will know when the piston is correctly positionned and perpendicular to the caliper as it will slide down fairly easily with only moderate pressure.) Note that if the piston does not go straight down you can easily dammage or twist the inside rubber seal, do not force it down! Push the piston all the way down and using a small jewellers screwdriver gently inserted into the seals lip, slowly move the screwdriver around the seal to snap the lip into the slot of the cylinder. Repeat the process for the opposite side.

Ah I just remembered why I ground down the top of the vise grip tips for a second point to grip. It was to create a way to grip the piston slot from the opposite side for reinsertion of the pistons.......... sorry for the senior moment Anyways even if you are not going to ever use those vise grips for any other purpose, for about 9 bucks it's well worth having a usefull tool to easily extract and reinsert those hard to remove andf next to impossible to grip pistons.