Rock Hard Brake Pedal ?

D

Deadstar

New Member
Long story shortened - bought 1975 2.2 TC on 18-07-09. Drove it 250 odd miles home. No problem with brakes at all. On Wednesday used car to visit local garage (to have gear selector bushes changed - and thats a whole other story) and noticed that brake pedal felt firm and car took a while to stop - so much so that you wouldn't have wanted to do an emergency stop.

Have tried depressing brake pedal with engine off, hardly moves, keeping pressure on pedal and starting engine, pedal can be depressed only very slightly.

I've used the search function and found references to brake booster (V8's) Does this apply to the 2.2? If so what am I looking for?

Ideas?
 
Sounds like the servo isn't working. The first thing I'd do is make sure the hose from the manifold hasn't collapsed. Remove the fitting from the servo and put your finger over the holes in the end while someone runs the engine, and see if you can feel the "suck"

While the pipe's out you can see if the servo is full of brake fluid...........
 
Well I removed the hose from the manifold end - increase in engine speed, no sucking at all from the hose - nothing. Am I safe to assume that the servo is dead ?
Is the servo unique to the p6 or was it fitted to other cars?
 
You need to remove the hose from the servo end. You won't feel any "suck" from the servo if you've got the manifold end in your hand, as its the manifold that provides the "suck" by virtue of induction vacuum, the engine drawing in air through the inlet manifolds. :wink:
 
Ah ok - I'm off outside now to check :) Right took hose of back of servo - ran engine no sucking at all - so does this mean new servo?
 
If you've removed the pipe at the servo end, and with the engine running there's no suction there, then the pipe has failed, or there is a fault at the manifold end, but it won't be the servo unless you're doubly unlucky. It could be that the valve that fits into the servo itself that has failed. You need to trace the vacuum supply from the engine to the servo and find the point at which disappears.
 
Well I removed the hose from the servo, lots of sucking going on there. Brake pedal hardley depresses, only by a very slight amount :(
 
Prepare your wallet for a good hard kicking then...........Servos aren't cheap. Although kits are cheaper and available if you fancy a go at rebuilding your one yourself.
 
OK lets give everyone a laugh.. how hard to rebuild ? (considering I really need this car on the road asap) as opposed to buying a new one off the shelf.
 
I recently paid a bit over £200 for a new lockheed servo for our 110. This included a kit for fitting as the cars originally used a Girling. The servo alone is around £180 I think. I also need one for The Bruiser & I still need confirmation that I can buy an MG servo for around £60 & fit the cylinder from that to a Rover vacuum chamber as the cylinders are what leak & are apparently standard while the vacuum chamber is the thing that gives the individual boost ratio that the particular car requires. Has anyone information on this? Rebuilding servo's is a bit of a hit or miss affair & the kits can be expensive enough to warrant biting the bullet & buying a brand new unit in the first place rather than re-building, re-fitting & discovering it's still not right.
 
Right I'm buyiing a new one tomorrow - ouch just before I go on holiday as well. Thanks for all the advice guys, really appreciated.
 
Try Wins and Co, I got a rebuilt servo from them a couple years ago. £140 This included the bore insert that will not rust, chrome I think. Another trick so do is to by a cheap new one for some other car make and swap the air chamber over.

These remote servos tend to get corrosion in the bore around where the air valve gizmo enters the system, this bit of kit can allow some moisture (when leaking) in and so cause pitting. My old one had failed just like this. This means that even after new sills they fail a few 100 miles down the road. So best to get a rebuilt one that's had the bore resleeved.

http://winsandco.co.uk/rover_p6.htm
 
The Rovering Member said:
The servo alone is around £180 I think. I also need one for The Bruiser & I still need confirmation that I can buy an MG servo for around £60 & fit the cylinder from that to a Rover vacuum chamber as the cylinders are what leak & are apparently standard while the vacuum chamber is the thing that gives the individual boost ratio that the particular car requires. Has anyone information on this?
Click to expand...

richarduk said:
Another trick to do is to by a cheap new one for some other car make and swap the air chamber over.
Click to expand...
Is that my conformation then? :wink: Is it something you've done yourself Richard?
 
New & recon are both £130 at the moment plus VAT & postage (£160.94). The recons are exchange though with a £25 surcharge refunded when they have your old unit, so factor in the cost of postage returning your old one. Recons are stainless sleeved so are corrosion-proof. The £60 MG servos I was considering aren't original Lockheed so I'm not sure if the cylinders are interchangable & the original MG ones are getting on to the price of a Rover one anyway. Just considering which way to go. To postpone the expense I could rob our 2200 of her servo for the time being as she's off the road & it's a good one AFAIK, though I'm loathe to disturb the brake system while it's sound.
 
The extra postage involved in a recon is well worth it for the security of having the stainless steel sleeve. Wynn's are highly reputable so I wouldn't envisage any difficulty in the event of future problems with the recon.

Chris
 
Yes, I am a fan of stainless inserts. I went for a re-lined brake master cylinder over a new one for our 110 though I used a new lockheed servo which came with a small kit to convert it from the original Girling item. I could do without the expense at the moment though so I'm still considering robbing Josephine to pay Bruiser. :)
 
This appears to be the same as my v8 - when I take the vacuum pipe off at the servo there is suction on the pipe to the manifold. The brake pedal feels no different whether or not the pipe is connected so, I am assuming the servo is knacked. I tried putting the piece of paper "straw" down the 90deg bend pipe to check for fluid but don't think i can put it down that far? is there anything else or should i just now accept i have the right diagnosis and fix it?

the car will stop but it doesn't inspire confidence :shock:
 
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