hey i am so close to geting my 1200 finished its not funny then the brakes decide to not work.
they are all drum brakes
first bled the brakes and noticed still not working. Nearly all thye brake cylinders were leaking fluid so they were all replaced. the rear shoes were worn down so i replaced those aswell and re-adjsted all the brakes and the handbrake. again bled the brakes till no air and still no brakes. we re-bled the brakes to make sure there is NO air in the brake lines. pulled the drums off and push the pedal and the shoes move and it all appears to be working but theres no pressure on the brake pedal once the drum is back on. if you pump the pedal a bit you start to feel pressure at the pedal but still not much. is this a master cylinder problem because thats about the only thing i havent eliminated fault with yet??? thaanks

The bottom line is they can be an absolute pain.

Took me forever. I pulled the master down to check it and then decided to bleed the brakes the conventional way, I simply couldn't get better than an 8 pump lead up to a full pressure pedal.

Once you do get pressure though if you supress the pedal hard and it doesn't slowly go down, I think this is a good indacation that the master is okay, if the pedal slowly goes down and you lose pressure I think that is because either you still have a leak somewhere or the master is no good and the rubbers or valves need replacing.

Here is a technique that I reckon will work well assuming it's just a stubborn air-pocket that won't exit;

Bleeding Brakes

yes, master cylinder. If all four wheels cylinders were bad, there's good chance the master is bad too.

ok where can i grab a master cylinder from. do maddat sell them or should i be looking on ebay

They don't have to be a throw away part, just by some new kits for them and rebuild them. Kits should be available through PBR, Repco, auto-pro, any specialist brake business? it's probably cheaper to rebuild them anyhow.

ok thanks for the help ill try rebuilding it cheers.

That's the spirit.

Either way you'll know when it gets so expensive that you'd be better off buying a new one, perhaps get some prices first on replacing all the parts and then compare that to some kits for each slave cylinder and a professional rebuild on the master. You'll know then.

Otherwise just put up an add in classifieds and see what people have or where they suggest is the cheapest place to get them from.

Did you back off the handbrake before adjusting the rears? If you didn't then it will be holding the shoes against the drums, making it seem they are adjusted OK but the rear cylinders will not be touching them and will need to be pumped up.

If the pedal is hard (and doesn't slowly sink to the floor) once pumped up, then hydraulic wise it sounds OK and it is probably an adjustment issue.

no i did notice that that when i pulled the rear drums off how the person before me tried adjusting the handbrake to compensate for worn down brake shoes so i did adjust the handbrake back. before the handbrake didnt work but it does now and the shoes do touch the brake cylinder now.

rebuilding the master cylinder properly (sleaving it then putting new seals in) is usually more expensive than getting a brand new one anyway