Triumph Repair: TR6 Brakes, wheel bearings, rear brakes

Question
Hi, My daughter has a 1972 tr6 not run for 10 years, her Husband has fitted new brake system, but is getting air in the system after a few operations, any advice please [ it may save a divorce ]
Regards Doug

Answer
Doug,

Is it confirmed to be "air" or is is just a spongy pedal?  

Couple of things to check:

Make sure the rear brakes are adjusted out so the shoes are just about making contact but not dragging.  If the brakes are set too loose it'll feel like there's air in the system as you have too much pedal travel.

For the fronts, it's worth checking the wheel bearings to make sure they're correctly set (not too loose, not too tight). Same idea.. if the rotor is wobbling it'll push the pads (and brake pistons) back into the caliper, requiring more pedal travel to get the brakes working.

After that, for bleeding there are several options.  I use an "Eezibleed", it's a setup which uses airpressure to push clean fluid from it's tank into the brake reservoir to ensure you don't accidentally run dry during the bleed process.  The kit normally comes with a good selection of caps but it didn't have the large TR6 m/c cap when I picked up my kit in 1990.  I modded an old cap to use.  

One word of caution:  it only takes a few psi of pressure to push the fluid... it's better to err on the low side when you start.  If it's not orking, slowly up the pressure.

There are also "Speedbleeders" (www.speedbleeder.com) that replace the standard bleed nipple with a unit that has a small valve in it.  So you just open one bleeder at a time and pump the fluid out.  

When bleeding the system start at the wheel farthest from the reservior and work back to the closest wheel, which would be drivers side front.

And don't be stingy with the fluid.  A couple of quarts of brake fluid now are way cheaper than a divorce.


Cheers,

Jim