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MG TD TF 1500 - TD brake problem

looking for some wisdom. To start, had a grease seal failure in one front hub, so bad breaking. while getting that cleaned up, the wheel cylinders looked pretty tacky so I replaced all front and rear cylinders. Could not get good pedal afterwards, so replaced the master cylinder with an aftermarket brand. Finally got the system bled, and I have pretty good brake now, but I have to push to pedal much too far to engage. I think all the brakes are adjusted as far as possible. So what is next??
M Morgan

M,

The trick with these T bleeding procedures is to Zero all of the adjusters before you start the bleeding. This allows the pistons to move through their longest travel, thereby expelling all of the air in each of the wheel cylinders.

After you've bled all of the wheels, then go back and properly set each of the brake adjusters. Try the brake pedal after that and you'll be amazed at the difference.

I found this all in the archives here several years ago and it worked for me. Good Luck!

Gene

G Burgess

M?,
Did you install new brake shoes? Or just clean up the old grease soaked ones?

Assuming that you adjusted the brakes till they 'locked" and then backed off one click ?

Or did the adjuster run out of adjustment?

Steve
STEVE WINCZE

Don,t forget to remove the handbrake cable fron the rear levers before setting the brake adjusters. If this is not done then it is possible the rear brakes will be adjusted against the small handbrake piston and not against the main piston.
Hugh Pite
H.D. Pite

new brake shoes all around. the maintenance manual talks about adjusting the rod under the brake pedal that pushes the master cylinder piston. Anyone familiar with this?
M Morgan

Hi george,

What do you mean by "zeroing" the adjustment. I had a terrible job getting a hard pedal after ressembling my TF's brakes and after taking advice from the forum locked all wheels solid, with the adjusters, before re-bleeding. This worked a treat. I had loosened off the adjustment fully in order to get the drums over the new brake shoes. This meant the pedal was hitting the floor before all the pistons were fully extended and thus some air remained in the system. I do have a kit to pressurise the brake system with a foot pump and all that is necessary is to open each bleed nipple without pushing the pedal. This includes a cap for the master cylinder with a Schrader valve in the middle. Unfortunately though the cap is too large for the TF/TD. If someone wants to make up one of these kits a good source for the Schrader valve is one of the hydrolastic suspension units on a modern MG F. UK scrap yards are full of these but make certain there is no pressure in the system before you unscrew it.

Happy Christmas

Jan T
J Targosz

M., that adjustment, not easy to do, is to assure that there is no pressure on the push rod when the pedal is totally released. See Section M.1 of WSM. Bud
Bud Krueger

M,
BUT,, With the new shoes, did the adjusters run out of adjustment??? Which would require more peddle travel??

SPW
STEVE WINCZE

after current adjustment, all wheels have light scraping noise when the tire is rotated. Bud, to get brake engagement sooner, lengthen the rod going into the brake master?
thanks all
M Morgan

M., don't think of it as part of the adjustment process. It's an assembly issue. There MUST be a gap. This is movement of the pedal before there is any movement of the push rod How much slack do you have? Bud
Bud Krueger

pedal goes nearly halfway to floor before "braking" happens. Brakes seem to work ok at that point, but that much movement is abnormal.
M Morgan

Have you bled the air out of the master cylinder? Bud
Bud Krueger

does not seem to be air. Pumping brake has no impact.
does anyone know of a knowledgable shop in eastern North Carolina in case I need to go pro to get this fixed?
M Morgan

Did you bench bleed the m/c before you installed it?
Bud Krueger

It would really help if you could isolate the part of the brake system that is the culprit. If you plug up the output of the master cylinder you should get a solid brake pedal if it is working properly and has been thoroughly bled. I find that the handiest way is to take an old piece of brakeline and turn it into a plug. Find a piece with a good nut on it and cut it off with about a couple of inches of line showing. Remove the nut and braze shut the opening in the line. Now put the nut back on. Remove the brake line that is attached to the output of the m/c and replace it with the plug. Now push on the pedal. If all is well at that end you should get a solid pedal. If not, you'll know where the problem lies. Good luck. Bud
Bud Krueger

M., if it's not feasible for you to make such a plug there's another way. Take one of the front wheel cylinders that you removed and wrap a tie wrap around it so that the piston can't move. Now remove the end of the short brake line that goes from the back of the m/c to the 4-way fixture. Insert that end of the line into the tie-wrapped wheel cylinder. You might want to crack it open a bit and press the pedal to see if there's any air to be bled out of that 10" piece of line. tighten it down and pump your pedal. It should be very hard with no pedal movement. Bud
Bud Krueger

Sorry, M., that won't work. The wheel cylinders are threaded for banjo bolts. Shucks. Bud
Bud Krueger

I don't believe you should ever have to adjust that rod length unless a previous owner screwed with it. Regards, tom
tm peterson

This thread was discussed between 19/12/2013 and 22/12/2013

MG TD TF 1500 index

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