I've got a set of John Shermon's wide five discs and I'm having issues with getting a good pedal. The calipers seem ok, but the pedal sucks.
I'm using a twin master cylinder and t3 wide five drums on the back,
Any ideas?

Did you bleed the Master cylinder? Sound like there is still air in the system. May require another bleed.Get someone to help if possible.:bounce

done all that, even pulled done one of the calipers and greased it up with rubber grease,
However, still not good.
Driver's front caliper seems to be where the issue is.
Do VWs have an issue in this area?

Not that I know of???/Are all the lines/hoses OK??Must be something simple. Are you pressure bleeding the system or gravity bleeding???It will need to be pressure bled. Keep the post to the top and there might be more advise tonight from others.Good luck.:jesus

All the lines except for the main one are brand new and the main line is good and there are no leak.
What do you mean by pressure bleed?
Do you mean by pumping the pedal?
Coz that's what we've done so far.

Yep...pump the pedal,loosen the bleeder nipple to get shot with brake fluid and retighten bleeder before raising pedal again. Does not take much air in system(if thats the problem) to make the brakes not work properly. Is the master cylinder in good nick?? Have you bled ALL the brakes or just the front ones??:jesus

Make sure your msater brake cylinder is one for disk brakes. The residual pressure in a drum brake master will make the discs drag.

Steve

the whole system has been bled, furthest to closest including the master cylinder, using the method you are talking about.
The master cylinder itself is a beetle / type3 dual circuit type. So it's made for front discs.
I really think the problem has to do with the calipers some how, but I don't know how to diagnose it properly.

are the bleed nipples at the highest points on the calipers? On single nipple calipers they are made left and right. If you have them on the correct sides the nipples will be at the tops. If they are on the incorrect sides the nipples will be at the bottoms. air rises.

the first bleed is always the hardest.

Yep Wes,
The nipples are on the top.

Has anybody heard of work progressing on the wide 5 brake set-up by Vintage Vee-Dubs? It was over two years ago when I saw it..looked absolutely stunning and from memory, very reasonably priced and it didn't even increase the front track of the car!
al

Since you seem to have done the bleeding by the book, it might be worth checking that your driver's side disk is mounted correctly and not running out of true; that would "knock off" the calipers and lead to a bad pedal.

Just spin the disk with a dial indicator on its outer face; at least you'll eliminate that as a cause.

hth

how common is the disc out of alignment problem?
I only ask because, every component on the brakes is new, except for the stub axle.

Does anyone have experience of John Sherman's set-up

I think you will find thats the system is sucking air at one of the joints check tighten them all.


Aldo

Thanks Dave, after I saw the Vintage Vee-Dubs wide 5 brake set-up, I sold my 'crappy' Maicos. Any news regarding the 'track' dimension (does it remain stock or wider since my last time at the shop)?
a

Does the shaft (adjustable) that goes from the pedal into the master cyclinder have a couple of mm of play before it pushes on the piston ?

Have you made sure that your rear wheel cyclinders are not leaking and that the shoes are adjusted ?

I'm assuming that you had a good pedal before ??

i was told that it is a good idea to fill the brake light switch with fluid before fitting as bubbles can sometimes hang up in there and not bleed out.
when i fitted sherman wide 5 discs on my car i found that the peddle had a fair amount of travel before it went hard, i attributed to the increase in size of the piston in the calliper. also when you had some pressure on the brake pedal then stomped on it it wasn't solid, it was a little rubbery. this was from the standard brake lines... when you had your head under the car you could see the rubber lines expanding.

hope this helps.

henry.

Hey Craig,
All corners have been progressively bled while the rubber lines were crimped.
The pedal was quite good until the last crimp (driver side front) was taken off and thats where it goes pear shaped.
The caliper itself has been pulled down a number of times.
First cleaned and then finally reassembled using brake rubber grease.
Their was some improvement, but it's still not what it should be.
Any more ideas.

Oh by the way, I want an increase in track for the buggy.
I'd be surpised if widened beams aren't illegal in NSW, so these brakes made for a good compromise. :thumb

so is fluid coming out of it when you bleed it?

if not is the bleed nipple blocked? I had a wasp make a home in one of my bleed nipples and it took a while to find that as the reason of it not bleeding cos it was so deep in the nipple I couldn't hardly see it.

must be something strange...

Plenty 'o' fluid, just a big dumb spongy pedal

i had probs once as i unscrewed the bleed nipple too far and they were sucking in air past the threads as the fluid was bleeding out. the nipples were only taken out a little off thier seats too.
just a thought.