[Spridgets] Help - Seemingly Incurable Brake Fade

[Kirk Hargreaves]

David,


Thanks for the input regarding my brake fade situation.  I also found
yesterday that the spring - return spring on the brake side of the master
cyl had broken off.  I replaced it. .  made it feel a little better.

I have some new lines coming, braided lines for the front which might make a
difference.   As far as the rear brakes go, I am tempted to not use them at
all!  Cut them off from the system and let the front brakes stop the 1400 lb
car!  The fronts do over 70% of the work anyway.  . right?  Well, I am not
so sure about taking this route, but it is tempting!

I am not sure how old the rear shoes are since they have been on the car
since I bought it.  . about 5 years ago.  I am going to pull the rear brakes
apart, fix the leak and put some new shoes in.

The shoes that I have are in a green box from Moss.  "Made in England".  The
box says ABS on the top front with a pic of the shoes on the green box in
yellow.

I would guess that these might be the poorly patterned shoes that you are
referring too . . But I have not installed them yet.

Thanks for taking the time to give me your insight on the matter. .  it is
appreciated.

Kirk

On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 4:42 PM, David Lieb <72spridget at gmail.com> wrote:

> Kirk,
> That is typical of a Spridget with too much travel in the rear shoes.
> Seems that the new shoes being sold by most of the usual suspects were
> patterned from a worn example, so even new there is not much
> adjustment. Shoes should be slightly dragging on the drums when
> properly adjusted. If not, it takes two pumps to get the brakes to
> work. I have heard that the 1.5" wide shoes from the front of the
> early Mini Coopers with 4-wheel drums work better, but I have not had
> a chance to try.
> David L
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 5:51 PM, Kirk Hargreaves <khargreaves2 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > 59 Bugeye 1275. .  disk brake conversion from a latter year Sprite.
> >
> > I have bled the master cyl, the slave cyl and all the wheels beginning at
> > the passenger side rear wheel and working to the driver side rear, then
> to
> > the passenger side front, and the driver side front.
> >
> > All bled out. .  still get brake fade. . it still feels like I am still
> > pushing air through the brake lines when I pump the brakes to stop.
> >
> > It does improve some after I finish bleeding them. . but I still have to
> > pump them down to stop.
> >
> > Could a very small leak on the passenger side rear brake cause this much
> > loss of pressure?  I have lived with the leak for a good two years
> without
> > any brake fade until now.  When I top off the brake fluid there is only a
> > small amount of fluid needed to top off the system suggesting that the
> leak
> > is still extremely minor.
> >
> > I am going to fix the leak this weekend.  . however, I feel like the fix
> > will not improve the problem.
> >
> > I am stumped on this one.  Feels like I am driving my old 1960 VW when I
> was
> > a kid.  I stopped that thing on air for 5 years.
> >
> > Anyone ever face this problem in a non leaking brake system?
> >
> > Any ideas are certainly appreciated!
> >
> > Kirk
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