Just been going through some old photos on my phone and came across a few which I thought might be helpful to some if I shared here. A brief back story... my van was off the road for approx 8 years until I set about recommissioning her just this spring. Back in 1998 when I gave her her first little refurb I overhauled both front calipers with new seals, dust boots etc and proceeded to enjoy many trouble free miles of reliable braking. But during her last couple of years of regular use I started to experience problems with the the front brakes occasionally binding which I put down to the now rather crusty calipers. Often times I'd be cruising down the motorway and gradually start to feel the brakes pulling to one side or another necessitating a stop at the next services where I'd whip off a wheel, lever the pads out and work the pistons in and out a few times which would cure things - until the next time. Fast forward 8 years and I'm finally in a position to drag the van out of the old council lockup where she'd sat unmoved for so long and unsurprisingly the NS front brake is stuck solid. After a level of force tantamount to vandalism I eventually managed to extract the old pads to get her rolling again and flat bedded her to my garage back home where the gradual recommissioning would begin. Knowing the calipers were by now pretty much scrap I managed to source a couple of almost new replacements but on replacing and bleeding the NS the brakes were STILL binding! The old hands amongst you will now no doubt have guessed where this is leading. Yep, the flexi hoses had completely closed up, allowing pressurised fluid into the caliper but not back out again! I showed the pics below to an experienced garage owner friend of mine and he'd never seen anything quite as bad in his 20+ years in the trade... There's no doubt that the calipers were shot! But this is where the real trouble lay... compared to how it should look. Hands up, it was my fault, couldn't believe it but on closer inspection both front hoses were ATE branded and presumably original factory fitted 1973 items! For whatever reason, I'd apparently neglected to change the hoses back in 1998 and 47 years had clearly taken there toll! So check your flexi hoses!
