Rear brakes not good enough

[gr4h4m]

Oh and at some point I changed the brake pedal to a disc brake pedal from the older drum pedal. Not sure that made much difference but I was trying to get the best pedal possible

[sclemow]

The weight of the car is interesting, I hadn't thought about that.

To be clear, I'm not worried about the braking performance, as has been mentioned a few times, they don't need a lot at the back. I do like to keep it MOT'd though and want to get it through the test, this is where I am struggling at the moment,

[sclemow]

Does anyone know off hand if the adjustable rear bias valves can be adjusted while it's fitted to the car?
It looks like the adjuster would be up against the rear frame.

[GraemeC]

Working from memory (ie not going to have a look!) I'd say the adjusted would be innaccesible if the valve is mounted in the standard way (in fact it may not even fit?)

[sclemow]

hmm, I suspected that may be the case, which is going to make it a pain to set up!

[Peter Laidler]

This is what I was taught about vehicle handbrakes. Mind you, we did have some vehicles with ratchet handbrakes. But straight direct cable was this.
1st click wheels to rotate freely
2nd click, to bind but able to rotate with a BIT of effort 'a BIT' was left to the bloke doing the adjusting..... But the effort was to be the same on both sides
3rd click Wheels locked on.

Just my very limited experience, as taught in the classroom and on the workshop floor of vehicle engineering.

As for the bias adjuster, I hope others will chime in, for or against, that for a road car, just stick to what you've got

[sclemow]

Thanks Peter. The handbrake is fine, it is all working and passes MOT requirements. The footbrake is not providing sufficient efficiency for the MOT, so something needs to be done to the brake system as a whole to address it.

['S'-type]

This is obviously a really old thread, but I was wondering if you found the problem?
I am having similar problems with my S. The handbrake is ok, brakes are adjusted with new cylinders etc, and are bled correctly.
The shoes have been on for a couple of years. It has always been marginal on the rear brake effort on the footbrake, and is below what it needs to be.
I have the standard rear bias valve, S discs on the front, with no servo and the smaller early GT wheel cylinders.
The brakes feel fine on the road, but I don't think you'd notice underperforming brakes on the rear.
I tried warming the brakes thoroughly and putting it back on the rollers, but this evened the brakes from side to side but didn't affect the efficiency.

Any ideas?

I think warming the drums is a red herring. As they heat up drums expand away from the linings, however slightly, so in use they tend to 'go off' more quickly with heavy braking. Not your issue here of course.
My only other thought is some kind of restriction in the rear lines, apart from the bias valve itself. Are the rear flexis fairly new? I had a problem with a front flexi once. It was letting fluid through (ie when bleeding) but it seemed to require more pressure to reach the cylinder on that side and when it did it grabbed that side of the car. So I had the weird situation of the car grabbing first one side then suddenly pulling to the other.

Sorry don't know about in situ adjustment of valve.

[Exminiman]

I know its an obvious one but, have you measured the inside diameter of the drums in case they have been skimmed or skimmed too much. Also the condition and width of any wear on the drums can effect where they make contact (or not) .

[Polarsilver]

My thoughts are providing the brake shoes have the leading shoe the correct way around.. Handbrake is as you say good + flex Hoses are OK & pass fluid ?..the next thing is take off the rear subframe mounted Valve open it up & it could well be internal corroded or the seal is knackered.. if its beyond saving buy a replacement standard valve from MS & hopefully the problem is sorted... if not any of those then i use my early mk1 genuine " Sooty Magic Wand" to sort all other issues.

['S'-type]

My thoughts are providing the brake shoes have the leading shoe the correct way around.. Handbrake is as you say good + flex Hoses are OK & pass fluid ?..the next thing is take off the rear subframe mounted Valve open it up & it could well be internal corroded or the seal is knackered.. if its beyond saving buy a replacement standard valve from MS & hopefully the problem is sorted... if not any of those then i use my early mk1 genuine " Sooty Magic Wand" to sort all other issues.

That valve is the likely culprit. If the hand brake can meet the test level, then equalised hydraulic pressure at all four corners should be enough to do the same. So what is over-restricting it to the rear?

As an aside, we didn't have this problem when the test stations didn't have rollers. They just used to drive round the block with a decelerometer (Tapley) in the footwell while you waited nervously for the verdict. They are still used as a back up.

Still it's njce to know what the rears are doing.

[sclemow]

I agree that the valve is the most likely candidate.

I have put the S through with a Tapley device before, but keep coming up against this issue so am determined to give it a good go at fixing.
After stripping and taking a good look at the bias valve, I am thinking that packing the spring with washers should stop the valve closing so early, and allow more fluid into the rear system, giving more braking effort. I don't know whether I have an S bias valve on it or a normal one, as over the years I've struggled to find out what the difference is in the spring and how you tell, but it seems to me this should improve things.