Practically Classics Forum

Hello again wise ones.

I just bought a new gunsons eazibleed as I used one many years ago and are brilliant.

However, none of the caps supplied fit the reservoir on the brake master cylinder of my 1970 Herald 13/60.

Anyone any ideas?

Thanks.

Go along to a motor wrecker and get a spare cap. Drill a hole in it and fit a metal tubeless tyre valve. Don't forget to remove the valve core first.

Pavel

Fatbloke wrote:Hello again wise ones.

I just bought a new gunsons eazibleed as I used one many years ago and are brilliant.

However, none of the caps supplied fit the reservoir on the brake master cylinder of my 1970 Herald 13/60.

Anyone any ideas?

Thanks.

IIRC, the Herald uses either a Girling CV or a Lockheed of the type also found in MGB, Rootes Arrow, etc and both of these are among the cylinder reservoirs catered for by the selection of caps that were supplied with my Eezibleed but as I had that one in 1988 maybe they reduced the quantity that they provide. If you're passing, you're welcome to borrow the right one from me, or you could give the Gunson people a call and ask them to sell you the one required. I guess that they just don't cater for older cars as well these days.

Pavel wrote:Go along to a motor wrecker and get a spare cap. Drill a hole in it and fit a metal tubeless tyre valve. Don't forget to remove the valve core first.

Pavel

Even assuming that any breakers still have cars in with that type of cylinder, the ones supplied in the Eezibleed kit don't have a fitting attached, the end of the pipe is simply pushed through the hole and a nut screwed onto its internal end which has a male thread too, which would mean that you'd need a double female adaptor if you did it that way though of course the basic plan of using a spare cap and drilling a suitable hole is sound enough, but modern reservoirs all have very much larger orifices than even the larger diameter of the available CVs and the Heralds with CVs had the smaller O/D one.

Hi Pav,
My 1st thought was to buy a new cap and butcher mine to fit the tube, but no joy! no 2nd hand ones either.

Hi JPB. thanks for the idea. email now sent to gunsons. If they don't come through, I might just take you up on that offer of a loan.

I hope that Gunsons are willing and able to help you out here but if you should need to borrow one from me that would be fine. I have a feeling that I can even remember where I put these things last time the Eezibleed was put away.

As above, try and get a spare cap and drill a hole in the top to fit the existing Ezibleed tube.

I had to do this with our morris minor, it worked with no problems using the existing Ezibleed pipe and union.

I can see why you want to use the Ezibleed kit - used properly they're good aren't they?

Cheers

Thanks for all your comments. Gunsons came back 1st thing this am but just want to sell me their universal caps which I don't think will work on mine as the barrel of the master cylinder slopes up to the base of the resevoir so there is nothing to securely tie them to. (and they are more expensive than the whole kit was!).

I had thought of getting another cap to drill a whole and fit the pipe but not been able to find one either new or 2nd hand.

As far as I know, it's an original master cylinder. its the type that has the plastic "extention" coming out of the top of the metal "cap". It's the plastic cap on this extension that doesn't fit.

The extension "appears" to screw on to the main body of the reservoir. If I could get this extension off, I think there is a gunson cap that would fit. all attempts so far have failed to shift it. However, I haven't tried too hard incase it ISN't supposed to come off. I am quite a strong chap and have been known to remove things that aren't supposed to and then can't reassemble.

Does anyone know if this extension is supposed to come off? if so, I will try a little harder.

Ah! This is making perfect sense now. When I fitted a new one to the Dolomite, I had to bleed it without the sight tube fitted, then take the cap off, fit the sight tube and top up. These extensions are only legally required on post-1972 cars but are a good safety feature on any CV cylinder. As you're suggesting, the ring that holds the sight tube to the original filler aperture can be very tight as fluid gets into the thread and corrosion does the rest but yes, they are intended to be removed. This explains why you didn't have a matching Eeziblled cap though, because these extensions use a size that doesn't fit anything else, trust me, I looked 'til I was blue in the face to find an alternative for use on this:




Even if a cap were available, the seal isn't up to holding anything beyond atmospheric pressure, maybe that's why these sight tube extension jobbies use a unique cap size?
Sorry, but you're just going to have to remove the tube somehow. Good luck, they do eventually give in to persuasion.

Thanks John. Looks like it's time to dust off those muscles then!

If the extension gets wrecked, I know Demon Tweeks sell replacements. They also sell a replacement for the steel collar, made in gorgeous billet alloy!