Spitfire MkIV front brake discs seized on

[DanMi]

I'd also put new seals in the master cylinder and check the rear hoses/cylinders. There's nothing worse than bleeding the system only to find a leak from somewhere else a few weeks later. Plus lets be realistic if the front hoses are perished there's a very good chance the rears are old too.

[johny]

The steering flexible coupling is a potential safety critical weak point but you raise an interesting point about replacing stuff that many people dont consider:

The bath tub curve. This is a graph that describes the statistical failure rate of a item and unsurprisingly forms a bath shape in that there tends to be a lot of failures at the start of its usage. Then as time passes the failure rate reduces and stays lower until the end of its life when the number of failures increases again.

All this means that there is a certain risk when you replace any component that you are removing something that is in the lowest stage of the curve and returning to the start with a much higher risk of failure. This higher risk includes, as in Marks case, incorrect installation or it can be a defect in the new component itself from design, quality or manufacturing issues.

Its something thats taken very seriously in industry and we should consider because quite often the risk of an item failing can be, paradoxically, greater if we replace it!

[Gnbickley]

Gentlemen,

Thank you for all the advice. Unfortunately I'm on a very very tight budget and I can't afford to buy new or recon calipers from anywhere it's simply not an option at present. So I ordered new stainless steel braided hoses and caliper repair kits from Canley yesterday and it all arrived today. I'm hoping to get everything fitted over the weekend and get the front brakes sorted. 

DanMi, I got new hoses for the rear brakes as well as I'm going to overhaul them once I've got the fronts sorted.

[johny]

will you try just the hoses so, out of interest, we can positively identify the problem or just do everything at once while the system is drained?

[Gnbickley]

Johny,

I'm inclined to do the hoses and see if it makes a difference if not then I'll do the calipers.

[johny]

Great let us know how you get on...

[Gnbickley]

Well it's taken me a little while to sort the brakes but happily I can confirm I finally got them fixed. 

First I replaced the hoses with steel braided ones but that didn't fix the problem so next I removed the calipers and purchased rebuild kits. Unfortunately the pistons were completely seized on the calipers and nothing in my arsenal could convince them to move!

I therefore decided to buy new calipers and while I was at it I got new hoses, drums and shoes for the rear. Everything now works perfectly and I've been able to enjoy the sunshine over the last few weeks 😊

Thank you to everyone on here who commented offering advice and help it was very much appreciated and useful. Apologies for not updating you all sooner but she hasn't long been fixed.

[Patrick Taylor]

I've just picked up this thread -I'm glad everything is fixed and you are enjoying the car! Some of the earlier posts remind me of the old adage of 'before you make it go, you need to make it stop', i.e. improve the brakes before you improve the engine. I had a braided hose fail a number of years ago: I think they are PTFE tube under the stainless, and I thought they were 'fit and forget'. Apparently not! I replaced them (with more braided...) but read somewhere that in NZ braided hoses have to be replaced every seven-years...