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Braketopus

VB242

I.M. Weasel
Joined
Sep 21, 2011
Location
Driving the No Malarkey Bus
I'm changing the master cylinder on my 1980 242 I'm getting a random soft pedal and brake failure light, I can pump it up and get brakes. Most of the time it's normal pedal and there's no fluid loss from the reservoir. I bought the leak proof octopus and now I'm trying to decide to change it now while the system is open. The original seems to be working properly and here's my dilemma, there's an autocross event Sunday I'd like to do and I'm concerned about twisting up a brake line changing out the octopus. I hosed it and the lines down with PB blaster. I guess I'll see if they break loose easily.
 
It's no huge deal if you have the flare tool, and maybe a couple feet of copper line. Good luck, hope they come loose!
 
Make sure you are using flare nut wrenches on any copper brake line fittings. Too easy to strip with regular wrenches.
 
I'm getting a random soft pedal and brake failure light, I can pump it up and get brakes. [...]
The original [octopus] seems to be working properly

Those two statements seem strange together, but it may very well be true.

Is leaking the only mode of octopus failure? I would think that if the failure warning light comes on and then corrects itself later, that means the spring-loaded piston in the octopus is working. In which case, you're almost certainly correct.

Just in case you missed it -- regarding diagnosis, although my first guess would be master cylinder, a recent thread mentioned that random problems could be related to a sticky front brake caliper overheating. http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=356988

My opinion: if you're sure that the octopus is good, and you're about to flush brand new fluid into the entire system anyway, I would guess it'll probably stay good. Old, dirty fluid is apparently the biggest cause of failure.

If someone has tried that approach and discovered the foolishness of it, I'm eager to know.
 
The random failure happened brakes hot or cold, the pads are worn evenly all around and don't show evidence of overheating, so I'm pretty sure it was the MC. I wrassled the brake kraken and won, MC installed, 5L container of Pentosin LV flushed through the system. Brakes work well, might be a tiny spongier than before but lock the wheels well before bottoming the pedal out. Pulled the trigger wire for the coil apart at a bullet connector inside a loom, had to figure that out and repair. Swapped on the big tires and washed it, got home by 11pm now I'm up for the autocross. Will report back this afternoon.
 
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