144 brake pedal travel?

[chris s]

Hello,
I'm wondering if anyone can advise me on how to reduce the brake pedal travel on my '67 144.
It seems to need to be pushed about halfway down before making any braking impact.
It's always been like this in the 14 years I've owned it,I don't know if it's just the way the earlier cars are,compared with my '72 144 which has virtually no excess travel.
The pads on the '67 are in good condition and I've just bled the brakes,and I fitted a new master cylinder about 5 years ago.
Any info would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris.

[Mike B]

Hi I have a 164E ,and the pedal also went a long way down , and after the bleeding etc ,found a set of stainless flexable brake pipes made a huge differance. It still goes further than my 740GLE . but I think thats normal ?
Regards
Mike B [ Byrne]

[Derek UK]

Chris
I guess that '67 means that you have drums at the rear. How is your handbrake adjustment? If you have a lot of clicks at the lever it probably means they need adjusting. This will reduce the pedal movement before they bite. Pull the handbrake on till it holds, let it off 3 clicks and then try the brakes. Does that reduce the pedal movement to something more acceptable?
I don't know what manuals you have but they should offer some help.
The pedal height can be adjusted and yours might be a bit high. This shouldn't make too much difference unless there is obvious slack movement in the pedal before it starts to push the MC pushrod. i.e. Your braking will be fine but there is some pedal movement before the MC starts to build pressure. You've had the car a long time but might not know if this adjustment has been changed. It's difficult to measure the brake pedal stroke and it's correct position unless you are bleeding the brakes. If you were, the stroke should be approx 140mm/ 5 1/2". More importantly there should then be a gap between the back face of the vertical part of the pedal and the bulkhead of 10mm/ 3/8". This means it will nudge the carpet if you have them. Without rebleeding you'll just have to make a guess but the brake pedal is normally at about the same level as the clutch, assuming that is set correctly.
MOT men don't usually like long travel hand brake levers but when they are on the floor by the seat you often get a bit of leeway! You haven't mentioned if you've had problems with the brakes at MOT time.
Good luck.

[Triple-S]

Today I checked my '73 144GL auto (discs all round) and my '68 142S (with rear drums), and as Derek (Hi, Derek) said, that may be the cause of your difference. I had minimal clearance on the GL (with its huge pedal), but lots on the 142, just like our Amazon, which never causes problems at our MoT.

However, checking after handbrake adjustment may make a lot of difference, but is your MoT-man being picky? Perhaps like my previous tester, your man may admit to hating old cars....

Paul

[chris s]

Thanks everyone for replying.
Some useful info there.
BTW my '72 is an auto,whereas the '67 is a manual overdrive,maybe there's something in that big brake pedal or whatever making the pedal feel different, hmm?
Don't all 140s have discs on the back though,with a drum inside the disc for the handbrake,or have I missed some very rare early model which doesn't?
Cheers,
Chris.

[Clan]

Firstly the braking system is very similar to current models ie discs all round and separate handbrake shoes at the rear .
With pedal travel you are pushing fluid out down the lines somewhere , you need to find where it is going . ( it could be being compressed into an air bubble if there is still air in the system )
Clamp off each brake hose in turn with a clamp ( Mole grips if you dont have the proper clamp ) and see which brake or brakes make a difference ...
Siezed rear pads will cause brake pedal travel , especialy at the rear , a good test is to get someone to press the pedal hard with engine running whilst you watch the rear discs near the pads , if you can see the disc moving inwards or outwards that would indicate a siezed pad , usualy inner .

[Derek UK]

I'm not a 140 man so it looks as if I was wrong to say that early 140's had drum rear brakes. Looks like Paul needs to check to.(Hi Paul) Certainly I can't find rear drums mentioned in the manuals and a paragraph giving details of the "New" 140 range says discs all round. They do have the small handbrake drums though and these will need to be adjusted about right.

[Triple-S]

Apologies to Chris S as I checked my '68 142 today, and as Derek said, has discs at the back too. However, that doesn't mean yours must have discs too - as your car is very early it could have drums.

I should have remembered, as only a few weeks ago I replaced all the rubber and metal brake pipes. With age the memory is failing - aint you finding that too, in darkest Kent, David; oops sorry Derek!

[Dylan144GT]

Hi Volvo Paul

ALL 140's had disk brakes all round. Even the early ones. That was one of the selling points of the car when it was released. Major safety factor. The only form of drum brake on 140's was for the hand brake. Check all the brochures for the 140, 99% say "All new all round disk brakes system" on the safety/equipment list.

Dylan

[john h]

Check all the mechanical linkages for wear (e.g. the link pins at the top of the pedal shaft). Any slight wear here is magnified by the length of the brake pedal shaft so could create wasted movement at the pedal.

Good luck

John