The Ford Capri Laser Page

Thank you very much Peter for taking the time to show the pipe set up. That is how mine are piped so I can tick that one off..Best wishes...Peter

Pedro 70 wrote:Thank you very much Peter for taking the time to show the pipe set up. That is how mine are piped so I can tick that one off..Best wishes...Peter

No problem.
Bleed the lower nipple first if you aren't already.
Sometimes it can help to leave the brake pedal wedged down over night as that may force air through the system that will then come out on bleeding the next day.

Interested to hear how this is going, as my brakes have become soggy all of a sudden
The car hasn't been driven over the winter, took it out the other day for a little drive and noticed the brakes have become really spongy. It didn't seem to matter how much I pumped the pedal it stayed the same. And no loss of fluid as far as I can see.
I'm going to take a look at it in the next few weeks, so I'll post if I find anything.

Put my standard 2.8i caliper back on again yesterday, bled the system through and all is well. Good pedal straight away and brakes work fine again. So all is not right with my brand new Princess caliper. I did notice that with the caliper on the bench, only two pistons on each caliper appear to have moved out. Will investigate that this winter when I lay up the car. Going to enjoy a summer of driving it now. All the best to all for your inputs. Peter

Pedro 70 wrote:Put my standard 2.8i caliper back on again yesterday, bled the system through and all is well. Good pedal straight away and brakes work fine again. So all is not right with my brand new Princess caliper. I did notice that with the caliper on the bench, only two pistons on each caliper appear to have moved out. Will investigate that this winter when I lay up the car. Going to enjoy a summer of driving it now. All the best to all for your inputs. Peter

I've had that with rebuilt Princess calipers, the new seals can be a bit tight it seems. If you have an air line or pump you can probably work them back and forth on the bench and free them up but at least you have a working set up in between time.

Thanks Peter, good call, I’ll give that a go when I get some inspiration back. A bit p****d off with the Princess caliper at the moment. Peter.

Pedro 70 wrote: A bit p****d off with the Princess caliper at the moment. Peter.

Maybe you should rename your thread from 'Brake Bleeding' to 'Bleedin Brakes !!'

Too right!!!

The simple method to bleed these brakes would be to remove and rotate the caliper around to get the air as close to the bleed nipples as you can.

some pistons are hollow on the inside and will trap air. doing this will free it and allow a better bleed.

Thanks, I will give that a go.

As you have them on the bench it's worth a smeaar of rubber grease around the important bits. FROST is what I've been using & it will keep things lubed up round the main seal & help to keep water out of the dust seal.
Make sure you push the pistons fully back into the calliper before fitting, then open the nipples & wait for fluid to flow, then start the forced bleeding process.

Right, to anyone who was following this thread last year. Got the princess callipers out again trying to fathom why they would not bleed out. On real close inspection it looked as though one of the bleed nipples would not screw in fully, as the caliper casting obstructed the bleed nipple. Anyway, out with the file and flattened the area around the nipple hole allowing the bleed nipple to go down further. Put the whole lot back and bingo system bled straight away with excellent pedal pressure. What a faff !! New master cylinder, various brake bleeder kits and half the brake fluid supplies in Suffolk. Not been on the road yet as the car is still up on axle stands but all looking positive. Hope this may help someone in future and thanks to all members that took an interest and offered advice.

Il stay with standard brakes after reading this thread.

Pedro 70 wrote:Right, to anyone who was following this thread last year. Got the princess callipers out again trying to fathom why they would not bleed out. On real close inspection it looked as though one of the bleed nipples would not screw in fully, as the caliper casting obstructed the bleed nipple. Anyway, out with the file and flattened the area around the nipple hole allowing the bleed nipple to go down further. Put the whole lot back and bingo system bled straight away with excellent pedal pressure. What a faff !! New master cylinder, various brake bleeder kits and half the brake fluid supplies in Suffolk. Not been on the road yet as the car is still up on axle stands but all looking positive. Hope this may help someone in future and thanks to all members that took an interest and offered advice.

Thanks for the update mate. Very good of you to take the time to give us a conclusion to your brakes issue Great you found the problem and now hopefully all is good. Let us know how the test drive goes....if we dont hear from you... ... ...

Later this year I am going to upgrade my brakes on my Laser with the Hi-Spec 4-pot Kits that Tickover do. Now I have 15 " wheels I can go for the 285mm discs. Will talk to Tickover nearer the time if they recommend upgrading the Master Cylinder too.

Anyway thanks again for the update and brilliant you have got your new brakes sorted mate

Yeah I’ll let you know how I get on when I get the car out. For now it’s on to the next hurdle sorting out some white faced clocks I bought, rev counter issue.