Does fitting a hydraulic handbrake increase pedal travel?

[Al Weyman]

Its just that I have changed the rear calipers and it is better than was but compared with my other car which I just pushed into the workshop (in preparation to come out with you TRC guys?) which has no handbrake it is still a pig to push and the rears although you can now turn them OK are not as free as the fronts. Maybe when I have ran it and the pads and discs become familairised is will improve.

[graham bahr]

an easy way to tell if a bind is caused hydralically is to momentry open a bleed nipple, and realease any pressure that may be in there,at least by doing that you will know if the bind is caused mechanically, sticking pads etc or hydralically (handbrake not allowing full fluid return?) is the car hard to push in a straight line, or only when you start to push round a corner? lots of castor or tight LSD will both do that

[graham bahr]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

. I would just need to work out cylinder sizes somehow.

almost every thing i've ever seen uses a 0.7 front cyl and 0.75 rear

[Al Weyman]

Thats a good idea opening the nipple Graham I will try that, no it is just pushing in a straight line. When I drove it out the workshop the brake pedal actually felt acceptable so I think it is time for a bit of testing before we go any further and see if everything beds in.

[graham bahr]

what could be happening is the handbrake master cyl isn't quite fully returning home, if that happens it could act as a one way valve, the main master cylinder would push the fluid past the seals in the handbrake cylinder so the rear brakes would still work, but, but the handbrake cylinder could hold some pressure in the rear circuit.

as we said, pump the brakes up, see if it binds then crack off a nipple