Mitsubishi Delica Owners Club UK™

[MATT-S]

Hi everyone, I'm a regular viewer of this site, and have owned my Delica for 2 years but I have only just signed up, so I'd just like to say Hello. Anyway I have just changed my brake pads and i went on to bleeding the fluid through. After bleeding around 50ml I noticed that what I thought was the brake reservoir hadn't moved at all (I checked the level AFTER fitting new pads) The reservoir that I was looking at, the only one I can find on the vehicle is under a panel at the drivers end of the dashboard the one that says 'brake fluid' on it. I noticed that the reservoir itself has clutch fluid written on it. So is it

A. a shared reservoior?
B. brake reservoir?
C. clutch reservoir?
D. neither?

If A or B then why didn't the fluid level drop? am I missing something?

Thanks for your help

Matt
_________________
92 L300 exceed 2.5TD

[Google]

[jo0lz]

I vote for B
If only because my Deli is an AUTO
So it doesn't have a clutch
Jo0lz

[Marcus Bloke]

Yeah I'm sure its brakes only.

Take care to over pump brakes when bleeding.
I did when pistons came out and sh4gged the master cylinder
OUCH ! £500 but found out Mitsy did repair kit for £98
Which still seemed bl00dy dear for a couple of big rubber washers and two springs .



Mark.
_________________
NOW 100% BIO DIESEL,

Chunkey monkey
Worx monkey
Twice the fun !
Mantained & Modded By SVS 01202821222

[MATT-S]

I forgot most of these things are auto's. Is yours an auto too Marcus? I can't understand why the fluid hasn't gone down, I pumped loads out but the level didn't move at all? any thoughts?
_________________
92 L300 exceed 2.5TD

[jo0lz]

Matt
Perhaps this is the way to do it?
http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=28811
Sealey Brake Bleeder Vacuum Type at £57 quid is cheaper than sh*gg*in your mastercylinder.

Not used one myself
BUT I've seen Mark Evans use one on TV (Discovery Home & Leisure Channel) in that series 'A 4x4 is Born' when he rebuilt a Series Landrover for off-roading
Jo0lz

[Marcus Bloke]

Yep mines an auto.
And that looks a bleeding good bit of kit !!!!!
sorry.



Mark.
_________________
NOW 100% BIO DIESEL,

Chunkey monkey
Worx monkey
Twice the fun !
Mantained & Modded By SVS 01202821222

[MATT-S]

ha ha thanks guys
_________________
92 L300 exceed 2.5TD

[JohnT]

Hello,

1/ the hydraulic fluid top-up location, next to the steering wheel, on a Mitsubishi L300, is a shared reservoir, you fill up with fluid there for the brakes AND the clutch.

2/ If you do any work on the brakes or clutch, you will, potentially, need to bleed/check both lines.

3/ The amount of fluid you allow to leak out when changing the brake lines or hoses will determine whether it affects the clutch line.

4/
a) If a lot of fluid was allowed to leak out of your joint system, when doing the brakes, and if you allowed lots of air to get drawn into the system it may mean the clutch will need bleeding too,
b) you bleed the clutch behind the driver's door underneath at the clutch cylinder, you can see the nipple easily without needing to get under the van itself and you can bleed it from the side, even more easily than doing the brake bleeding as the brake bleeding nipples are harder to get at.

5/ I've been busy with the brakes on two different types of vans now, first on an old VW Transporter/camper, the brakes pistons were seized-up then on my Mitsubishi L300 that was built in 1989 and runs on diesel.

6/ Working on the VW first taught me lots, so I was able to approach the stuff I'm doing right now on my Mitsubishi with a lot of confidence, and I soon worked out exactly how the brake calliper on the Mitsubishi worked, after all it is not the same system as the one used on a VW with twin pistons

7/ My Mitsubishi L300 has a single piston and part of the calliper itself moves back and forth.

8/ I did not even need to take the entire thing off to get at the pistons, I knew roughly what size the pistons must be so pumped them as far as I thought I could outwards, without having the pistons pop out entirely fro m the chamber, and I think if I'd pumped just one more time it would have popped out which I did not want at this stage.

9/ So having managed to get the piston popped out to its limit, I cleaned it all up, then was able to push it back in with the help of a stone chisel (one of those thick metal ones that look like they could open a safe) which is much better than using screwdrivers and flimsy stuff like that which will damage a piston easily.
The benefit of a sturdy chisel is that you can exert even pressure with the chisel laid flat against the piston pushing it through the calliper so an end sticks out so that you can hold both ends when pushing.

You can open the bleed nipple on the calliper you are working on, and have the brake fluid pushed out there instead of it travelling up to the fill-up point. Goes without saying that you need to place a clothe around the nipple opening and a tray to catch any spills underneath.

10/ After asking at garages and looking and looking and looking (studying -up on it) online, I decided I could not just let the garages tell me what MIGHT need doing, what MIGHT be the trouble (and also, without saying what MIGHT be the incredibly HUGE bill), I decided to find out myself, logically, carefully.

11/ Getting the wheel nuts loose on the VW was the first problem, it was as though they'd been welded on, so old and stuck. Had to have them loosened at a garage with an air gun. Cost me £8.

12/ Next, checking out the actual brake callipers (brake claw).
Got one of the two bolts loose with a whole lot of trouble, both bolts being just as rusted into place as the nuts on the wheels. The second nut would not go so had to go to a garage again, where the chap carefully abused the nut with sledgehammer which I would have been too afraid to do. It cost him a lot of energy, he wasn't going to charge me, nice guy but I gave him a tenner, I was so relieved that nut was loose.

13/ Afterwards, when I got home, and took the calliper off, I could see that the dust covers which are made from rubber, had all but dissolved.

On reading up on it I discovered that some people said the whole problem with pistons seizing up was, in their opinion, the result of the rubber dissolving and then coating the pistons, making them dirty and sticky.

14/ I removed all of the old rubber that I could and then decided the best way for me to get the pistons out (two pistons on each brake calliper on a VW from 1982) would be to reconnect the brake hose to the calliper without needing to reconnect the entire calliper, after all with the calliper reconnected itself, around the wheel, the pistons would not be able to come out far enough in order to be able to remove them entirely.

15/ I reconnected then having placed the calliper on an up-turned bucket next to the wheel, I carefully pumped, checking after each pumping of the pedal, to see how far the piston had moved if at all.

The problem with a seized piston is not so much that it cannot move outwards when the pedal is pumped but that the piston stays fixed in place after pumping and causes the wheels to stick, the pressure on the piston is not released once your foot is removed from the brake pedal; the piston(cylinder) stays there and causes the wheel to be stopped from moving freely. I had this on both front wheels and I thought at first that the clutch had gone as the van wouldn't drive very fast. Old VW's are not speed devils but mine wouldn't go any faster than 50 miles per hour.

16/ Eventually got both of the pistons to pop out, one at a time. After I had one out, it meant fluid started leaking out so I quickly put an old brake pad over the hole (to close it entirely) and clamped the piston (cylinder) chamber tight with a small G-clamp, some call it C-clamp (one of those clamps for holding wood in place when gluing).
After a couple of repositions of the pad to make it air-tight, I pumped the other piston out.  If it isn't air tight you will not get any pressure back on the system.
Both pistons were covered in a reddish substance which turned out to be from rubber that had dissolved, the piston cylinder surfaces were not damaged but were rough and in order for the pistons cylinders to work properly they have to be as smooth as a baby' wotszit, that is logical as they fit into the piston chamber extremely accurately, if they were not as accurately made as they are brake fluid would leak out from the cylinder housing along the rubber seal along the piston chamber wall.

17/ I bought a repair kit, it was about 23 Euros which is approximately £ 18.48.

The kit includes (and this is the standard kit) 2 rubber dust covers, on a VW the metal ring is built into the rubber dust cover itself and two rubber seals which lodge into the side some distance in the piston cylinder chamber, not half way, down, something like 3/4 of the way, so near the top, a quarter distance down.
A kit for a Mitsubishi will cost about the same unless you buy directly from a Mitsubishi dealer where you will py the sky is the limit prices; I hardly ever buy stuff from them unless I really have to, though I wish I did have the money to buy original parts from them.

18/ Getting the piston to ease over that new rubber was a delicate job, as there is no extra space or something like that, if there was then the system wouldn't work as it would leak, so the chamber is highly polished as is the piston and this must be clean at all times an the pistons slide into there and leave no space for any shake, rattle and rolling.

Getting the piston to slide in is a job that needs to be done with patience and WITHOUT force.

If you are pushing a piston back into place, the fluid in the system is then, once more, under pressure, only this time not from the brake pedal pushing fluid towards the back of the pistons in order to make then pop out against the back of the brake pads and so stop your vehicle but all of this in reverse order, which means when pushing the piston in the fluid has to go somewhere and that somewhere is right back up to the location for filling-up with brake fluid.

Therefore, you have to make sure that the cap/lid/top is removed beforehand and that the reservoir isn't so very full that you push quart litres of fluid out of the fill-up spot.

Place therefore a cloth around the opening of the fill-up spot so that if fluid is pushed out it doesn't make a huge mess (very corrosive and very poisonous, you may not realise it/think it but if dealing with the stuff and getting it on your hands you may find that you have a headache later on.
It doesn't burn through stuff for nothing, Wear gloves or wash your hands regularly, take are of your eyes and be careful not to get any of the fluid in your mouth, like from your hands. If it dissolves paint it will dissolve your intestines too.


19/ The degree to which you will need to bleed and whether your clutch will need bleeding too at the clutch cylinder, depends on how much fluid left the system when doing any work on the brakes.

20/ When you push the brake pedal downwards, if your bleed nipple is open then upon releasing the brake pedal you will raw air back into the system.

21/ You don not need to buy expensive DIY brake bleeding kits, I bough an Ezybleed and discovered that it was useless for what I needed, it says use soand so much pressure (they do not supplu the pressure guage) from your spare tyre, I mean how the hell am I going to get my tyre in place with the short bit of tbe they supplied? Very unhandy I did'nt even start to try that. I thought the kit was going to include a one-way valve meaning air out but not back in.
No way and anyhow, I don't like the idea of using AIR to get AIR out, sounds like piddling in the wind to me.
So the only good stuff I got out of that was the transparent tubes.

[regcheeseman]

I've got an ezebleed and had non of those problems????

I use my kids bicycle as the air supply, do not ever go above 10 psi though.

it use's air to pressurize a reservoir of fluid which then pressurises the master cylinder reservoir. So you shouldn't be using air to get air out????

Works just fine on most things, not used it on my Deli as I'm not sure how the Deli reservoir with it's push fit cap will respond to being pressurised.

[stu21]

i tried it once but it just kept blowing the lid off, great on screw cap resevoirs but not on the Deli