Spongy Brakes

[nxski]

True, turns out my brake fluid seems to be non-existent and I think it's dripping onto the driveway. I need to check when it's light since I can't really see well but if that's the case I'll take it back to the shop that replaced my hoses and see what the problem is.

[jelbon]

That's pretty definitive.

[nxski]

That's pretty definitive.

I'd say so, no entirely bad news since the worst it could be is a leaky caliper which gives me an excuse to do the dual piston upgrade.

[nxski]

Problem solved. There were 3 factors contributing to the bad braking.

1. I went from driving a brand new vehicle back to driving my van
2. The front calipers were caked in mud (despite my many attempts at power washing)
3. The rear drums were out of alignment (most likely because of having to use my handbrake so much when the brakes originally failed)

Turns our brake fluid becomes invisible at night, that or I need glasses because the fluids were all fine.

The shop I went to was the same shop that replaced my brake hoses and is just 3 blocks from my house. They charged me $40 to brake inspection and repair and $20 for a rotation (basically just the charge to remove the wheels so I figured I'd get them to rotate while they were off)

[dr_airtime]

jelbon wrote:

Slacken off the emergency brake cable and then adjust the rear brakes.
If the cable is too tight the rear cylinders have to move too far to engage the shoes.
The hand brake will feel proper, but the hydraulics are out of adjustment.
As the brake shoes wear the auto adjusters never work properly and the parking brake handle has more travel. Adjusting the parking brake cures the symptom but not the cause.

My Question on my L300:

The L300 manual downloads (zip files) that might contain parking brake info all don't work. I've linked in the L400 parking brake manual before as I figure the parking-brake-to-drum-brake system can't be that different. I've got some serious sponginess after replacing my front hoses and doing a full system bleed so figure it must be excessive drum brake travel as discussed in this thread. Two questions so I can prep myself for doing this job this weekend:

1) Are the L300 drum adjusters the same as shown on page 4 of L400 manual link below? (36-4)

2) Should I expect there is a nut below my L300 used to adjust e-brake cable separate from that at the handle inside the car when I get underneath? Or do I loosen from the base of the e-brake?

http://www.delica.ca/manuals/L-400%20Ma ... _BRAKE.pdf

[Tojo]

Dr_airtime,

Download the full Delica L300 OCR'd manual here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8AVy1l ... edit?pli=1
Then go to Section 27.

Hope this helps.