My brakes are shot.

Sometimes they work just fine, other times i put my foot on the floor and i'm just barely slowing down in time.

It has been really bad a few times, i've ended up a car length of so over the line large intersections and i've cut off a few people really badly in round abouts because i couldn't slow down in time.

I rang the mini mechanic today, he said he would take them off and clean them and then adjust them which should fix it. But he cannot get me in until next week.

Mini is my daily driver and i want to get it fixed ASAP.
What's the best thing to do?
What's a good mechanic that won't butcher my mini in the Western Sydney area?

Closes to you would be Mini Spares & Repairs in Castle Hill 9659 3314 - Ivan he specializes in Mini's. Their are also others around but depends on where your Daily commute is

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Stop Licking the Dog...I Don't Care Who Started It

Ivan is my regular mini mechanic, he can't fit me in until next week.

Said he's going to melbourne and is replacing rust all week

stop driving it.

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tim
68 Deluxe 1293, HIF44, megajolt/EDIS4, daihatsu alternator..

'a mini is for life, not just for christmas!'

yep I'm willing to give Ivan the big thumbs up... He can be a bit... strange... as Colin Dobs might put it.... but he's a top bloke and know's his stuff. His old man ran some kind of Formular 1 workshop or dealership back in Seth Affica and he has been playing with mini's for a good part of his long life...

Adam,,, I gotta few friend in your neck of the woods (yea yeah ha ha yes I do actually have friends you guys are killing me) some of them are mini nuts too... You anywhere near Grange Ave? Or the Schofields end of town? Did you go to Terra or Quakers High? Most of their younger bro's and sis's are still at these two schools (i think its been a long time) so you might already know them... You Q hill people are pretty inbreed,,, seems everyone knows everyone there!!!

Alex

Ivan (dont know if you're familiar with him) said it's something i can do at home, how would i go about adjusting the drums:

anyone know?

sounds strange tho,,, do yhou mean that "sometimes" you have a good high solid peddle & then "sometimes" you don`t???

or do you mean that "sometimes" the horrible peddle that you always have actually stops the car & "sometimes" it doesn`t

if you have lost the clevis pin from the """"peddle to the master cyl pushrod""" then i`d fix that before you drive it again

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

What happens is, occasionally the brakes will function as normal.

But when the brakes are a bit off, i can have my foot on the floor, absolutely planted flat and it will just be slowing me down like i am lighting touching the brakes.

I was tossing up just taking this opportunity to put discs on the front:

How hard are disc brakes to find, Ivan quoted me $1500 for brakes if i can find them.

Any links to a disc brake set would be a great help, i believe my wheels are 11", 77 clubman (if that changes anything)

Any chance you have air in the lines? I recall on old VWs that when things were out of adjustment or had air, you could pump up the pedal a time or two and have solid pedal feel. I have to wonder if the times you're getting "normal" operation, perhaps you've hit the pedal a couple of times in rapid succession and don't realize it.

Adjusting drums usually involves turning a star adjuster wheel from inside the drum until you can't turn the wheel, then backing off a set number of teeth. Repeat for each shoe, i.e. twice per wheel.

But there are other things to look at, i.e. worn shoes, blown slave cylinders, leaking lines, etc. You'll want to be sure about these things. Being relatively newer to minis, I'll leave details to others, but I would be curious about whether you can pump up the lines with the pedal or not.

bmc

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Ben McCafferty
Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA
1970 ex-police mk2 Cooper S

I am actually staggered when I read posts like this. You have a vehicle you cant reliably pull up and the braking distance perception is shot to pieces.

You are running the risk of not only destroying the car but injuring ssome inncocent person.

Just stop driving the car until it can be fixed.

I have no problems learning how to do things but if you have no understanding of how brakes work then it makes it hard for any of us to diagnose and advise.

Mini man Matt is probably closest to the mark with intermittant failure but do you even know where the clevis pin is ??? Its a small rod shaped thing that attaches the brake pedal to the naster cylinder - its right up high above the steering column inside the car and just below the master cylinder which is outside of the cabin and under the bonnet.

The clutch works the same way so you can look at the clutch to see how its attached and then check the brake has the same fittings.

But until you know what the problem is - Just dont drive the car - its an accident waiting to happen. I really dont think you understand the hip pocket ramifications and legal consequences in the event of an accident.

Mike

Is there enough fluid in the master cylinder?

Could someone close by give him a hand?

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Dog Food! Most kids like it more than Broccoli.

I would give him a hand if I lived closer.
I have just gone through the rigmarole with my brakes…..
The guy I bought it of just told the brakes need bleeding………ha….
One off the reason’s I bought the car was the brake system looked like it had been replaced.
Except for the rear left flexible hose and the fact that the brake lines where all connected up wrong.
When I finally got a firmish pedal the car would lock up on the left hand side….lol.
My clevis was out on mine so a lost about half a inch in pedal before the brakes came on…just wished the clevis pin would jam up there……finally got drunk enough to get it in.
Are you losing fluid and have to keep topping it up……
I had a lot of air in mine…….(air locks)…..I have a pump set up that sucks the fluid through from the bleed screw…..that didn’t work…………I tried undoing all the bleed nipples and letting gravity do it’s job….that didn’t work…..in the end good old pump hold…..pump hold worked.
But still no real pedal………….I have a dual circuit system and noticed that the top pipe is a fraction higher than the reservoir…….air lock…..end up cracking all the pipes to the regulating valve and got pedal.
Upps sorry starting to dribble on.
Do you get a hard pedal after you have pumped it a few times.
I would check for leaks…………I have had a slave cylinder leak a small amount and suck air back in, but after a few pumps come good again then lose pedal because I haven’t hit the pedal for a while. (does that make sense)
The master cylinder may be giving up…..
Have you mixed different brake fluids……

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I have a mini because I'm not allowed to play with small thermo nuclear weapons any more. (bloody neighbours you’d think they would be happy that they don’t have to turn a light on when they need to take a leak in the middle of the night)

Well I tried to offer the help of my mates who live n his area but what can you do... drown the horse?