Ford KA crap brakes!!
Redwood
a basic 1.3 model). I drove it for the first time and although the brakes
seem to work ok it has a long pedal travel & have to apply much more
pressure - like driving a car with non sevo assisted brakes. Just doesn't
feel as sharp as other cars I've driven. Said I'll check it all over but
was just wondering if the brakes on these KA's are known to be crap or a
possible fault on this car?
reg
"Redwood" <n...@home.net> wrote in message
news:7f80v6F...@mid.individual.net...
check the rear adjusters are working/wound out correctly on the rear shoes,
they are sposed to be automatic adjusters but they dont always work.
Chris Whelan
Ford brakes generally seem to need fairly high pedal pressures. At the
opposite extreme, Vauxhall always seem too sensitive to me.
Does the pedal travel reduce if you drive it with the handbrake pulled up
a click or two? If so, check the rear adjusters as reg has suggested.
Chris
--
Remove prejudice to reply.
Redwood
Thanks reg, will check the rears are properly adjusted. It's probably never
seen fresh fluid either so might as well put some new pads in & go over the
lot while I'm at it.
Paul Giverin
writes
seem under servo'd. I fitted grooved discs to keep the pads de-glazed
and I fitted fast road pads. The fast road pads were better when they
had some heat in them but were worse when cold.
--
Paul Giverin
My photos:- www.pbase.com/vendee
Redwood
news:qIXBLpBIMvjKFw$P...@10.0.0.3...
does hold pressure. Did notice though with engine off and I pump the servo
dry, on other cars I've owned you get a solid feel to the pedal with not
much movement but on this the pedal still goes down quite a lot and feels a
bit springy & not solid.
Handbrake works very well locking even on both sides on 2 clicks but there
doesn't seem to be free play in the cable - so I'm wondering if the cable
has been adjusted at some time to take up the gap between the shoes & the
drum instead of the shoes been properly adjusted first before adjusting the
cable. I suppose that would account for the long pedal travel as the rear
cylinders need to be pushed out further? Will check it out next week.
Mrcheerful
springy pedal can show that the calipers are seized, which gives longer
travel and less braking (to confirm get two hose clamps and clamp off the
front brakes, pedal should now be almost solid). wrongly adjusted rears
will usually only increase the travel and the braking should be normal once
the pedal moves far enough to make everything work, obviously do check out
the rears at some stage , but a quick strip and sort of the front end will
probably improve things the most (from your description)
john
"Redwood" <n...@home.net> wrote in message
news:7f80v6F...@mid.individual.net...
Dave Plowman (News)
Mrcheerful <nbk...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> springy pedal can show that the calipers are seized, which gives longer
> travel and less braking (to confirm get two hose clamps and clamp off
> the front brakes, pedal should now be almost solid). wrongly adjusted
> rears will usually only increase the travel and the braking should be
> normal once the pedal moves far enough to make everything work,
> obviously do check out the rears at some stage , but a quick strip and
> sort of the front end will probably improve things the most (from your
> description)
On my SD1 which has self adjusting rear drums, the brakes are noticeably
keener when the self adjusters decide to work - which isn't often. Maybe
something to do with the leverage of the pedal to master cylinder being at
optimum when fully up?
Do any drum self adjusters work properly? I've replaced them several
times and shoes and cylinders and drums - but they've always been poor.
I've got a disc conversion waiting to be fitted when I get some tuits
spare. Hopefully that will give a short pedal travel at all times.
--
*Shin: a device for finding furniture in the dark *
Dave Plowman da...@davenoise.co.uk London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.
Chris Whelan
[...]
> Do any drum self adjusters work properly? I've replaced them several
> times and shoes and cylinders and drums - but they've always been poor.
They have worked fine on all the Fords I've owned in the last 25 years; I
always clean the drums out and use Copaslip on all the friction points
every other year though.
I can tell by the pedal travel increasing that it is due to click up
another notch, and can sometimes make that happen by standing hard on the
pedal. (Whilst stationary of course!)
> I've got a disc conversion waiting to be fitted when I get some tuits
> spare. Hopefully that will give a short pedal travel at all times.
It should give a more consistent travel, but not necessarily shorter. It
will depend on the degree of disc runout, and how much play there is in
the wheel bearings.
Doki
Ka's have either vented or non-vented disks. The non-vented ones are, in my
book, not up to the job of stopping the car. The vented ones are alright -
you just need a set of calipers from a vented disk Ka or Fiesta and new pads
and disks.
Redwood
news:esSjm.70735$OO7....@text.news.virginmedia.com...
Got round to doing the front brakes - fitted new disks, pads and a good
bleed to get fresh new dot 4 fluid in the system and they feel much better
compared to before. There's a more solid feel to the pedal which doesn't go
down as far, plus less force needed to stop. My old astravan brakes still
seem a lot sharper but from all the reports I've read about KA brakes that's
just the way they are.
The new pads I fitted (and the old ones were the same) are tapered at each
end - anyone know the reason for this? There's about half an inch on both
ends of the pad that don't make contact with the disk until the pad wears
down!! I'd have thought for better brakes it's best to have all the pad
friction surface in contact with the disk, not just the middle of the pads?
Duncan Wood
Stops them shrieking & juddering when they're bedding in.
Redwood
news:op.uzix9eishaghkf@lucy...
Never come across tapered pads before but did wonder if it's for the bedding
in period. Seems quite a lot of pad material needs to be worn away before
the tapered ends even out though! Probably take over a year given the
amount of miles this thing does.
Duncan Wood
When the pads that thick then the disks the bit that overheats, rather
than the pad.