Bleeding brakes.

A mixed results day working on the Polo. The brakes seals finally arrived from Germany. They seem to have taken ages, but then they are for a 38 year old car and not an everyday item, so I can excuse that. They are still quicker than the windscreen wipers and oil filter I ordered from Eurocarparts the same day which are only coming from Tamworth. I could have walked there and back by now, so I don't know what the delay is. I'll be chasing them up soon, as I need that oil filter.

The brake seals, a fuel filter, and the air filter (small box on top) arrived in this incredibly large carton from Germany. I suppose that's why it is £8 postage. Lesson learned is fill the box, so I'll be making a list of what else is needed and buying it all at once if it's from AutoDoc Germany.

Meanwhile however I spent a couple of hours this morning fitting the seals into the callipers and mounting them onto the car. The callipers are an unusual design in that the cylinder floats within a floating calliper, which sits in the frame that bolts to the strut and hub. Everything moves as it should now, which is great.

The finished brake cylinder

Cylinder mounted into the 

caliper and carrier, all fresh

 and shiny - I like shiny things

Shiny refurbished calliper bolted

 to the hub, ready for bleeding.. 

An appointment elsewhere meant an extended afternoon absence, but tonight I set up the brake bleeding kit and attempted to bleed the brakes. The cylinder topped up, and the level dropped as the fluid made it's way into the system. That should have set the alarm bells off, but I topped up again, before realising that that shouldn't happen. The fluid shouldn't be getting past the seals until the pedal is depressed. Pumping the pedal confirmed my worse suspicions - the master seals have failed. This shouldn't have come as a surprise, as the rest of the seals had either failed or seized, but I suppose I was optimistically looking for a break.

A search of the internet shows that early Mk2 master cylinders are available …… but out of stock. 

A replacement seal kit seems to be discontinued and having attempted rebuilds of Mini master cylinders in my youth I remember them as being very fiddly with lots of little rubber seals that all look almost, but not quite the same, and are difficult to get in the right order with the dodgy sketch and foreign Pigeon English instructions that accompany them. 

Rather than stall the project I have (possibly) managed to source a good used item on a popular internet auction site. I haven't committed to buy it yet though, as our friend Matt in Brough still has the car he's breaking, and as we will be visiting him for the gearbox we may as well get a deal on the master cylinder as well - the only fly in the ointment being it might not fit - I'll have to see it first as the later mk2 had a different master cylinder.

I'm beginning to realise that whilst the VW design engineers, other than a facelift, might have kept the basic design the same for 14 years, they constantly fiddled with little bits improving and adapting them as they went along. Consequently replacement parts are a bit of a lottery.

There's still plenty left to do, but nothing more I can get my teeth into for the moment with no more time off work for the next week, so I painted the back side of the last wheel, ready for spraying the front if I get chance tomorrow.

More updates in a week or so.