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MG TD TF 1500 - brake cylinder testing rig?

Hi again,
Has anyone built any sort of testing rig for brake cylinders? I'm reboring & rebuilding mine myself (they were in very good shape, just a little cleanup needed & new parts!) and I would like to "test" them under pressure somehow before exposing my shiny new expensive Moss brake shoes to the Dot 5. (I know, "buy new ones or get them relined professionally". If I don't have confidence in them after this test, trust me, I will go that route, but I gotta try this first. Just my personality, I guess.)

I was thinking of bolting a cylinder to a board and running a brake line to my freshly rebuilt (by me) MC on the same board thereby testing them both at the same time. But how to apply enough pressure to the MC cylinder for any length of time??? Suggestions? (Aside from "get a life", etc.!)
efh Haskell

I just rebuilt 6 of them plus the MS and alls well! I'm with you as if you have the ability to rebuild an original item, why buy new. I'd rather have original than some of this junk we have to deal with now anyway. JMHO. PJ
P S Jennings

The only reason to have them professionally done is if they need to be sleeved. If the bores are good then there's no reason to go through all that.

Considering there are only five parts in the whole thing, there's no reason (in my opinion) why anyone would have to pay to have a cylinder rebuilt, assuming it's already off the car.

If it were me, I'd just install the thing and see how it goes. It isn't going to explode or anything, maybe just leak a little bit.
Steve Simmons

Only down side for a failure is silicone fluid will ruin the new shoes. In our soupy wet climate here, pretty much all of the masters and wheel cyls from local cars are deeply pitted, scored, or rusted (master) and require sleeving to rebuild. The wheels corrode at the bottom edge of the piston/cup interface- right where the cup will seal. When you force the frozen piston out it scores the bore. The masters just seem to turn into a nasty pitted rusty mess. If you were lucky enough to have bores that were in great shape, pretty hard to mess rebuilding up however. George
George Butz

This thread was discussed on 14/10/2010

MG TD TF 1500 index

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