Brake Servo Flex Fix

gasless is for winners - if you have no garage like me

My servo wasn't moving as much as Clive's but I thought it was worth fitting a brace.

I had a look and the F intake box is held by three bolt head self tappers from below into spring clips attached to the plastic box.

I replaced the end one with a nut and bolt to hold one end of the steady bar. (this was only really practicable as I had already made a useful big hole in the box for my air pipe)

At the servo end I found a handy and sturdy 'L' shaped bracket, and bolted the two together.



It is a lot more of a lightweight solution than yours, Clive. Although, at the minute, it is doing the job, and has firmed up the brake pedal noticeably.

I know what you mean David.

Just had the car out for a test drive and it is 100% better than it was.

The feeling was that there was still air in the system after I had fitted the new calipers, as the pedal was spongy. After fitting the bracket the braking has been transformed.

I just did an emergency stop from 70. Wow.

I would say it is the difference between standard brakes and APs. Saying that though, mine did have a lot of flex and I will be looking at whether it had any bracing behind the dash and whether that has failed.

Do you feel as though you have just uprated your brakes, or isn't it that noticeable? Mine is.

Even Sheila commented that the brakes seemed much better, so it must be really noticeable!:lol:

Does the LE500 flex as much? Maybe as bad if not worse given the shells were reverse engineered and mine had to have a brace welded under the dash. Nice solution!

Well that is amazing :omg:

I'll check mine later.

MartinW wrote: Does the LE500 flex as much? Maybe as bad if not worse given the shells were reverse engineered and mine had to have a brace welded under the dash. Nice solution!

The LE does flex, but I haven't really spent much time checking it out as it is away being fixed at the moment.

I will be adding a nicer brace to the LE, but I am waiting until it is out of warranty before I make too many changes.

Just done mine - rather home made involving old Mirror dinghy bits and some brass sliders all cut/drilled to size and bolted together very tightly. Considerable servo movement has gone to a barely perceptable movement and a brief road test shows an improvement with cadence braking.






Richard

Good stuff. It really makes a difference, doesn't it. :broon:

Just done mine using some flat steel bar bolted to both upper and lower bolts and then the same steel bar as a strap to the bulkhead. I haven't used the heater box bolts because I couldn't be fussed with dismantling everything to get to it so drilled a new hole in the bulkhead and shaped the strap accordingly.



It seems strong enough and has stopped the flex completely.

The best part though is the effect it's had on the braking. I didn't think it could be that significant but it really does make a huge difference. It's a bit surprising that this hasn't been the subject of a recall and fix to be honest.

Compared with newer cars I have never been impressed with the brakes on the TF, they always seem weak and spongy, I fitted seal kits, tried different pad materials and fitted braided hoses but found no noticeable difference.

My old TF Sunstorm had the bigger discs and 4 pot callipers but were no better than the 15" wheel version with standard callipers on my current TF Stepspeed.

Looking at what others are saying what a difference the servo support bracket makes I will be manufacturing one at the weekend and hopefully find some improvement.

Brace now fitted, it's the second attempt; I made the first one out of 4mm for the long strip and got my mate (big foot) to push hard on the brake pedal and it still has some deflection.

Second attempt the long strip is now 6mm; there was still some slight deflection but it was where the 3 clamp bolts go between the plastic snorkel (you crush the plastic and the foam gasket underneath and cannot get them solid) I made up some spacers and filed out the plastic to suit so I was not clamping down on the plastic and used M8 bolts with large washers under the nuts; so now it's bolted solid metal to metal.

Another test with Big Foot and deflection is greatly reduced.

I went out for a run and the pedal now feels very firm; as it should with no spongy feeling.

Obviously it will make no difference in the overall braking efficiency, but the pedal now feels great.

I have added a sketch in PDF with some rough dimensions if anyone is thinking of knocking one up. (applicable to the TF only)

Mk 2 Bracket





Spacers and M8 Bolts



Spacers Fitted






Bracket in place






Sketch in PDF.