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Not Any of Mine - Titanium Brake Nipples? - edlithgow

They a thing? Since when?

I've just been told that through all my years of banger bodging I should have been using

"Proper stainless or titanium brake bleeders"

(shame on me seemed to be implied)

You ave to larf. Well, I do

You get a different class of toff (and t***) on boatie forums

Edited by edlithgow on 24/01/2025 at 10:11

Not Any of Mine - Titanium Brake Nipples? - Big John

Saab used to fit stainless brake nipples and never seemed to seize. It's more complex than corrosion though it can be different metal types that cause issues!

Not Any of Mine - Titanium Brake Nipples? - edlithgow

You get galvanic issues with stainless and aluminium on boats, dunno about titanium.

I looked up titanium brake nipples. Not hugely expensive, and think of the weight saving.

Its been "inherited" pre-seized steel nipples I've had grief from though. Once I;ve got them free I can rust treat them and apply PTFE (which my critic took issue with) and then steel ones are OK, at least in steel calipers. I suppose aluminium calipers could be grief.

It was the "consumer virtue"description of titanium and stainless steel ones as "proper" implying that OEM steel ones are "improper" that I found amusing". "Decent" gets used in the same way. Probably just me

Not Any of Mine - Titanium Brake Nipples? - gordonbennet

Do any of you remember years ago you could buy replacement brake bleed valves that had a simple one way taper inside fitting with a spring behind it, made brake bleeding a real one man job, i don't recall them seizing in place but have no idea what metal they were made of.

Bleed valves in drum brake slave cylinders were a nightmare, invariably snap off and when you change the slave cyl the brake pipe would twis into a corkscrew, was always a toss up how far down the brake line you would end up before finding a connection that would undo without wrecking the next pipe in the line.

The only good thing was that cars were much simpler and were far easier to work on than moderns, though the main hyrdrolastic fluid pipe on a landcrab wasn't an easy change when one of those blew out.

With slave cyls of the bleed valves came undoen you could usually get away with fitting a new set of rubber seals which cost pennies.

Not Any of Mine - Titanium Brake Nipples? - galileo

Do any of you remember years ago you could buy replacement brake bleed valves that had a simple one way taper inside fitting with a spring behind it, made brake bleeding a real one man job, i don't recall them seizing in place but have no idea what metal they were made of.

Bleed valves in drum brake slave cylinders were a nightmare, invariably snap off and when you change the slave cyl the brake pipe would twis into a corkscrew, was always a toss up how far down the brake line you would end up before finding a connection that would undo without wrecking the next pipe in the line.

The only good thing was that cars were much simpler and were far easier to work on than moderns, though the main hyrdrolastic fluid pipe on a landcrab wasn't an easy change when one of those blew out.

With slave cyls of the bleed valves came undoen you could usually get away with fitting a new set of rubber seals which cost pennies.

I had a short length of red rubber with one closed end and a slit in the side - push fit on a bleed nipple and acted as a one-way valve, fluid out but no air back in when you pumped the pedal.

Not Any of Mine - Titanium Brake Nipples? - gordonbennet

I had a short length of red rubber with one closed end and a slit in the side - push fit on a bleed nipple and acted as a one-way valve, fluid out but no air back in when you pumped the pedal.

Yes, stuck the end under the surface of already used but clean fluid in a jamjar to watch for air bubbles whilst wifey or whoever did the pumping for you, then close the valve half way through the last press down on the pedal.

One of the best DIY offerings was the Gunsons Easibleed, using pressure from your spare tyre @ around 15 psi, still have mine but don't think there's a lid adaptor that fits the Toyota, my Techstream software has a brake bleeding routine which is needed apparently to purge the ABS unit correctly if for example the master cyl assembly has needed to be stripped for pressure accumulator pump replacement...it appears the days of getting the Mrs pumping whilst you went around the vehicle opening and closing the valves getting progressively closer to the master cyl are over :-)

Not Any of Mine - Titanium Brake Nipples? - bathtub tom

I had a short length of red rubber with one closed end and a slit in the side - push fit on a bleed nipple and acted as a one-way valve, fluid out but no air back in when you pumped the pedal.

Air could still be drawn in through the nipple threads on the back stroke of the pedal.

Not Any of Mine - Titanium Brake Nipples? - edlithgow

I had a short length of red rubber with one closed end and a slit in the side - push fit on a bleed nipple and acted as a one-way valve, fluid out but no air back in when you pumped the pedal.

Air could still be drawn in through the nipple threads on the back stroke of the pedal.

Thats what PTFE thread tape is for (well it isn't, but it can be)

I got one of those split tube thingies from the late lamented Pilrig Motors. TBH I cant remember how well it worked, but I suppose if it was useless I would have remembered that

The PTFE is only a partial solution to the air inspiration, which also happens when using an enema syringe (my ultimate brake bleeding accessory) on "suck", but the air seems to get pulled into the syringe where it does no harm. Doesn't happen when using the syringe on "blow" Alternating between them is very good at dislodging stubborn air bubbles, and very economical on brake fluid.

Perhaps no good with ABS, but I have no experience with that, and dont much want any

Not Any of Mine - Titanium Brake Nipples? - gordonbennet

Air could still be drawn in through the nipple threads on the back stroke of the pedal.

That was another benefit of those one way bleed nipples, the spring inside the valve sealed the brake pipe outlet on each upward pedal stroke, otherwise during normal bleeding SWMBO and i had a good sequence going where i would close the valve during each upstroke, out 'up' 'down' called routine might have raised a smile or two within earshot.

Going back (not many drum brakes around on cars these days for some odd reason) in the day drum brake slave cylinders could be difficult to bleed, the worst i recall was an ex WD series Landrover i had at one time, spent hours trying in vain to bleed the brakes out, eventually ended up removing all drums and wiring/clamping all the slave cylinders in their fully closed positions, bled out in seconds, an alternative with manually adjusted shoes could have been tightening the adjusters till the shoes were rock solid against the drums.

The worst disc caliper i experienced (we'll gloss over the awful Girling swinging caliper as fitted to the back of mk4 Zodiac and P6 Rover) was on the front of a 2200 Landcrab, as i recall they had 2 or might have been 3 bleed nipples on each caliper, multiple chances of a breakage.

Not Any of Mine - Titanium Brake Nipples? - Big John

.

we'll gloss over the awful Girling swinging caliper as fitted to the back of mk4 Zodiac and P6 Rover

Oh yes indeed - these calipers were horrendous. I found repair seal kits never seemed to work well with it, "swing" bolt could seize and the hex hole rounded off trying to remove it, handbrake auto adjust was a nightmare - On a Zephyr and then a Zodiac mkIV I could set it to pass an MOT re handbrake - but a couple of days later it was hopeless..

I found the drums in a certain age of VAG car had teeeeeeeny bleed nipples that just snapped off once a few years old. I used to bleed by releasing the brake pipe slightly - but as for the pre abs rear brake distribution valve - argh............

Not Any of Mine - Titanium Brake Nipples? - edlithgow

Perhaps these bad experiences explain other peoples relative tolerance of modern cars, and my relatively rose tinted retrospecs are because I've just been lucky?

Edited by edlithgow on 12/02/2025 at 02:38

Not Any of Mine - Titanium Brake Nipples? - gordonbennet
Oh yes indeed - these calipers were horrendous. I found repair seal kits never seemed to work well with it, "swing" bolt could seize and the hex hole rounded off trying to remove it, handbrake auto adjust was a nightmare - On a Zephyr and then a Zodiac mkIV I could set it to pass an MOT re handbrake - but a couple of days later it was hopeless..

I found the drums in a certain age of VAG car had teeeeeeeny bleed nipples that just snapped off once a few years old. I used to bleed by releasing the brake pipe slightly - but as for the pre abs rear brake distribution valve - argh............

Being inboard brakes (adjacent to the diff) i never had any issues with those swinging calipers on either of my P6 Rovers, must have helped being out of the worst of the weather but not an easy place to work if they did play up.

On the Zephyr/Zodiac4 they got blasted with all the salt and muck and by the time a couple of years had gone by the dust cover could easily have perforated through with rust, game over once they got a full salt bath.

I like rear drums, provide more than enough braking effort and usually means a decent trouble free park brake...interestingly many truck operators including who i work returned to drum brakes on trailers several years ago, disc brakes on artic semi trailers can give even more trouble than the worst that car makers can come up with if thats possible, seizing being the the number one issue.

All of our cars have the drum inside disc park brake, that's probably the best of both worlds, no trouble and means the rear calipers are simple affairs though i think Toyota maybe went a bit over the top on Landcruisers even fitting vented discs to the rear.

Not Any of Mine - Titanium Brake Nipples? - Andrew-T

<< ... (not many drum brakes around on cars these days for some odd reason) ... >>

Both our cars have drum brakes which I am very happy with. I am not a heavy braker so I suspect any rear calipers might seize up gradually. But those cars are now 17 and 33 years old respectively, so not surprising.