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Adjusting Self-Adjusting Brakes

M

Mike Armstrong

Bronze Level Sponsor
My SV has Self-Adjusting brakes. Looking at the SV Manual it appears the 'initial' adjustment is done by pulling on the emergency brake lever a few times. Is that the only adjustment I need to do on the drums. Anything to adjust on the calipers?

I recently rebuilt all of my brakes which included a new dual brake master, piping, hoses, pistons, seals, springs, ect. The brakes are a bit spongy with not enough grab, like power brakes without the engine running. They'll stop the car but it takes allot of pedal pressure.

No leaks, DOT 3/4 and the system has been bled (I ordered a brake bleeder kit from Motive just to make sure there is no air in he system).
 
V

V6 JOSE

Donation Time
Hi Mike,

You may want to have the system power bled, because for some reason, the Alpine is hard to bleed without it.
 
260Alpine

260Alpine

Silver Level Sponsor
Mike, This is generic info. Even though self adjusting, you can adjust by star wheel and tape measure initially. I measure inside diameter of drum and adjust the brake shoes almost the same. You will have a slight drag and 2-3 clicks on the hand brake. If you think about it you will have less pedal travel before the rear brakes engage.
 
M

Mike Armstrong

Bronze Level Sponsor
V6 JOSE said:
Hi Mike,

You may want to have the system power bled, because for some reason, the Alpine is hard to bleed without it.
Click to expand...

Hi Jose, thanks.

Read allot about vacuum vs pressure bleeding systems. In general they both seem to work but the Motive Pruducts kit gets allot of very favorable mentions. I got there model which has the Tilton Adapter since my Cardone F10 dual brake master has Tilton reservoirs.

https://www.motiveproducts.com/coll...eeder-kits/products/0112-tilton-brake-bleeder
 
M

Mike Armstrong

Bronze Level Sponsor
260Alpine said:
Mike, This is generic info. Even though self adjusting, you can adjust by star wheel and tape measure initially. I measure inside diameter of drum and adjust the brake shoes almost the same. You will have a slight drag and 2-3 clicks on the hand brake. If you think about it you will have less pedal travel before the rear brakes engage.
Click to expand...


Thanks Jim, I'll give that go.
 
Alpine66

Alpine66

Donation Time
I used a hand vac ( mityvac ) on the Alpine and all my cars. I've replaced the OEM cylinder with a dual.
 
Alpine66

Alpine66

Donation Time
Mike Armstrong said:
In researching, I think I saw Mityvac and Motive mentioned the most often as the two most common mechanical home garage mechanic devices.
Click to expand...


The first mighty lasted a good number of years, well worth it.
Btw I agree with 260's method. Could buy one of the spanners that make it a bit quicker but I don't have many drum brakes left thank goodness.....
 
R

RootesRacer

Donation Time
I use a harbor freight knock off of the mitty-vac.
Works pretty good but I had to get a replacement after the first ones seals went south after 10 years or so.
 
M

mikephillips

Donation Time
Also note that the star wheel and pin are handed, one is r/h thread and one l/h. So when looking at the car from the rear, when the brake handle is pulled the l/h side would spin clockwise to tighten up the brakes, the r/h side counter clockwise. Get them on the wrong sides and they won't adjust. Also, the wheel tends to seize to the pin and doesn't adjust anymore. I suspect that's why the factory went back to the manual adjust so quickly.

Also note that the MGC appears to have used the same setup, pictures look the same to me. So it could also be a source of parts if Rick doesn't have something.
 
260Alpine

260Alpine

Silver Level Sponsor
Mike, Also the master cylinder pushrod needs a little slack or wiggle before it contacts the pedal arm to release all the way.
 
M

Mike Armstrong

Bronze Level Sponsor
Thanks guys, very helpful information.

Sounds like as far as adjusting the brakes in general, only the rear drums and emergency brake cable are involved, otherwise it's a matter of doing a proper fluid bleed, correct?
 
M

Mike Armstrong

Bronze Level Sponsor
No problem Jim.

1) Finding that particular brake master can be a difficult. At the time I went looking for one most every vendor said it was out of stock. I got lucky when someone returned one at an out of town O'Reilleys (if I remember right).

2) Installation was a breeze. Bolted right onto the spacer.

3) Operation, for me, has yet to be determined. But, it seems there are several other members that have installed and are using this brake master. Seems I remember it was said to work well, hence how I found out about it and went ahead and bought one.
 
260Alpine

260Alpine

Silver Level Sponsor
Mike, I would use a 7/8 or 15/16 Nissan master on my larger custom setup. Nice to know the Tilton reservoirs fit the Nissan masters.
 
T

Tom H

Platinum Level Sponsor
Mike, you describe the car as "requiring high pedal pressure, like a car with power brakes but engine not running" . That seems a different problem than bleeding. I assume with your dual master you are not using the original booster. That would increase the pedal pressure required, unless you went to a smaller than stock bore in the master.

Tom
 
M

Mike Armstrong

Bronze Level Sponsor
Tom H said:
Mike, you describe the car as "requiring high pedal pressure, like a car with power brakes but engine not running" . That seems a different problem than bleeding. I assume with your dual master you are not using the original booster. That would increase the pedal pressure required, unless you went to a smaller than stock bore in the master.

Tom
Click to expand...

Hi Tom, your correct, no booster. I'm not confident that I did a good job bleeding the system but after I do it again using the pressure system I can confidently eliminate that as a possibility.

Seems that I have to pull up on the emergency brake lever quite a bit to get it fully engaged. I'll find out if that's because the cable needs adjusting or the drums, or perhaps both.

So, after everything is bled and adjusted, without a booster maybe hard pedal pressure will just be something I have to live with. Like I said, the car comes to a stop, it just takes its time doing so ;)
 
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