Originally Posted by RichardV6
Very helpful advice on the threaded brake rod Dave, will have a close look at mine although it's never been touched from new.

Regarding the torsion pedal return spring, isn't it normal for the coils to be lightly touching each other? (see below). I can see why separating them may give minute reduction in friction but to my mind the coils should support each other for linear operation. The only way such a spring can become "coil bound" is if it is twisted extremely in a tightening radial fashion to the point it binds on the shaft it's mounted on, which is never going to happen in this application. I just keep it well lubricated.

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BTW I did clean my pads the other day with the hot water and fairy liquid recommendation. I have to say no noticeable improvement despite exercising pistons and using Ceratec. I do agree with the initial dead feel although green stuff pads improved this situation, but they operate perfectly well once required pedal pressures are accepted. As DaveW suggests pretty normal.


Hi Richard, ref the spring. As you say the term "coil bound" I used is technically incorrect, but it was the best wording I could think of to describe what was happening to the spring in operation. I mounted the brake pedal assembly in my garage to observe the spring working as the brake pedal moves forward. The design of the spring is such that one spring leg sits on the cars cross member to prevent complete rotation during operation. The other tension leg hooks around the brake pedal arm. As the brake pedal moved forward, the only movement in the spring that I could observe was the springs tension arm on the brake pedal arm bending with no movement in the spring coil. I even measured the spring outside diameter in operation to see if this was changing with the action, but there was no change... The spring tension is high enough that the spring arm on the brake pedal is providing almost all of the tension. I eased out the spring coils a few mm and by doing this I could observe the first spring coil just starting to move with operation of the brake pedal arm. Now I agree that this may not be the correct engineering fix, but it did produce an improvement in feel.. I believe the spring design is not totally correct.. Anyway these are just my views.

Can I ask if the spring you show as an example is as fitted on your roadster? mine is a slightly different design with a longer arm that goes around the brake pedal arm and less coils. I ordered a replacement from Rutters and the new spring was the same as the one already fitted on my roadster..

dave

Dave
Plus Six "Squeak"
Roadster departed.
1936 BSA Empire Star Q8. 1935 BSA W7-35. 1938 BSA M20