riding a death mobile

The 72 B I bought supposedly had good brakes. The PO told me that the master cylinder had been replaced, (it looks new) and the front brakes had been redone. After driving several miles (close to over 100) I had no brakes. The MC was empty. I added some fluid and that gave me enough to get home. I removed the rear wheels and the drums. One wheel cylinder was leaking or should I say was pouring fluid out. The inner seal was gone and the boots ripped. The other side's cylinder was frozen. So no rear brakes. After a warm weekend, (apparently the last one) all was replaced. But it is too darn cold and raining and it will have to wait until another day for a proper test. The MG gods were watching over me for sure with this one. Worst brakes I ever saw.

Stephen,

When I got Ruby, I didn't know "jack" about these cars. I drove her for a year
without rear brakes. While underneath one day, looking at replacing the broken
hand brake cable, I discovered that the lines were pinched shut on the axle.
Sure made a difference once I replaced them and the frozen cylinders.

tedjr

FWIW you may not be out of the woods yet. The 72 has a dual circuit master cylinder so a leak in the rear brake cylinders wouldn't effect the front brakes at all and should not have posed any danger. Was there any fluid in the MC when you bought the car? If so and your front brakes have lost their fluid too you may have another problem to find.

If the brake shoes were soaked, replace them and clean the hubs.
You might want to have a look at the rubber brake hoses. There are three. Two at the front and one between rear axle and car that gets neglected, forgotten about.
If the master cylinder and rear slaves all needed replacement then odds on so do the rubber hoses.
Also the front calipers might need a close look.

I'd also grease and oil change everything that it is possible to grease and oil change. I would not be too inclined to believe anything that DPO told you.

Actually only one part of the mc was empty. the discs on the front and the pads look good. I checked them after the rear, or lack of, brakes were gone. I replaced all the springs, shoes and wheel cylinders. The drums were turned. Since I have no garage and am dependent on the weather for decent working conditions, the rest will have to wait. I took it for a short drive and activated the brakes and found no fluid loss. Now I need to do some final adjustment, (broke a wrench with that one) and all should be good. I am sure the cars in front of me will appreciate my ability to stop without using their rear bumpers.

I lost the linings off the rear shoes from a leak at the axle, they came off the backing plates and jammed in the drums and I thought the rear end had packed in!

Brakes have become a real issue on these cars by now.

I have given up telling folks that they might be able to get out by just doing pads and rear shoes and maybe some rear wheel cylinders.

Invariably it takes the full Monte to end up with something safe.

The rear shoes are usually worn out and/or soaked with either fluid or axle lube. The cylinders are frozen or leaking. The parking brake cable is original and either can't be pulled to begin with or will not relax if it is pulled. Fifty percent of the time the steel axle pipes are squished. The cable compensator is invariably frozen for lack of attention. The parking brake lever itself is either worn out or has so many gum ball wrappers stuck in the mechanism that you have to remove the whole thing in order to clean it up and get it lubed well.The axle seals are oozing lube, that is if there is any lube left in the diff to ooz out. All of the hoses look like something off of a Stutz. The front pads are trashed because the caliper pistons are sticking and the discs are a wonderful shade of blue. And only a fool would send someone down the road with an old master cylinder whether it is leaking or not. Which of course leads to scrutinizing the clutch master and then the slave and it's hose. Top it all off with servicing the front bearings and seals and you end up with a tidy sum invested in trying to get the sled to stop.

Sometimes the backing plates and adjusters are so far gone that only gettng them intimate with the inside of the blast cabinet will bring them back to presentable shape.

I have done a half dozen of these projects in the past five weeks or so and there is no end in sight.

What politician said something like ".... a couple of million here and a few million there, and pretty soon you are talking about some significant money". LOL

Jack

No matter what the P.O. say you just can believe them!! Luckily my P.O. was honest..:)

I had a 924 once that the PO had "completly redone the brakes, lines, pads, and cylinders. Just the MC was bad" I checked it out, and it certianly felt like the MC was going. If you pumped the brakes they worked, or hit them hard they did, but otherwise would coast to the floor. Well, after a new MC it was a bit better but certianly not emergency stop worthy. After bleeding gallons of fluid, replacing the parking brake cable, and a lot of head scratching I finally took the rear brakes apart. They looked OK, but not like the manual showed. Something was missing. Then I recalled another statment from the PO. "I had to disconnect the parking brake because it was binding". I went to the bag of "extra bits" he had given me, and found the spreader bars for the rear shoes. Put those on, and wow, the car stopped on a dime. Sometimes PO's do tell you all, just not in a way you expect.