Brakes sticking 450slc

[mark@space]

I have a problem with my brakes sticking on my 1976 450SLC

When driving and applying the brakes the pedal sticks after you remove your foot. You can stop the brake sticking by placing your foot underneath the pedal and returning the pedal to its normal position. This only starts to happen after you have been driving the car for 10 minutes.

I am pretty sure it is not the callipers as I replace the calliper seals and pads on all 4 callipers 2 months ago.

I have also checked the pedal spring and given the pedal hinge some lubrication.

I do not seem to be losing any fluid.

Could the master cylinder be sticking or damaged or could it be the booster?

If it is the master cylinder, Is it better to repair it if I can find a repair kit or buy a new cylinder?

Any help will be appreciated

Thank

Mark

 

[pascal]

Hi Mark,
Don't know a lot about Brakes but.
Pretty sure you can get a seal kit for the master cylinder, but a leak is usually accociated with this.

Do you use the car a lot?
Has the problem arrisen just after replacing caliper seals?

 

[mark@space]

Hi Pascal,

Thanks for taking an interest.

My wife or I do use the car every day driving it 20 miles or so.

My wife drives the car more than me and she thinks it was sticking slightly before I replaced the calliper seals but the problem is getting worse. When I ordered the Calliper refurb kits from MB I also ordered the master cylinder repair kit as I planned on changing all the seals at once. The master cylinder repair kit was not delivered or charged for so I guessed it may not be available. Also I have one of those CD workshop manuals on Ebay and the master cylinder looked a bit of a pig to repair so I initially pursued the callipers as being the root cause.

I agree with you about the leak associated with the master cylinder. The master cylinder is a Tandem version which I know little about. Could one half of the Tandem be upsetting the other half and causing an out of balance problem, or could the springs inside broken?

As the problem is getting no better I ordered a new master cylinder from German & Swedish yesterday for £38 (very cheap? I hope it fits!) So I will have a go at that at the weekend providing all goes well.

Mark

 

[pascal]

Besides the blue text being very hard on my eyes when on a computer all day, I think the £38 G&S option seems the way to go.

Please let us know how you get on, and a few photos would be nice also.

Pascal 8) (not me being cool, just wearing sun-glasses)

 

[mark@space]

The car is running and more importantly stopping like a dream but with a few hitches in the process of getting there.

The master cylinder supplied by German and Swedish had the brake pipe outlets in different positions and the reservoir interface was different. German and Swedish only list one master cylinder for all 107 Sl's so I had do to a bit of pipe bending, get a new brake pipe made and adapt some bushes so the master cylinder supplied was not a part that was a direct replacement for the broken original ATE cylinder I removed. I am sure I would not have these problems if I went to the MB dealer and bought the part there but I would probably have paid 3 or 4 times the price and wait a few days for the part to arrive at the local dealer. In the end though the money saved translated to extra time and the 1/2 day job turned into a 1 day job. But all fixed now and running smoothly.

Sorry about the lack of Pictures but I have not yet moved from a film camera to digital but I hope you prefer the black.
Mark