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Helpful Hints.
Hints On Bleeding Breaks:
Most workshop manuals have a basic description of bleeding the brakes on your mini. Use these suggestions if you are having problems with bleeding your brakes.
Getting no fluid out of a bleed nipple
Look at the simple things first, is the master cylinder topped up with fluid? It is surprisingly easy to forget to do this! If you have fluid in the master cylinder, try removing the bleed nipple entirely and see if you get flow under pedal pressure.
Case 1. Fluid squirts from line: You have a blocked or corroded bleed nipple, which will need to be cleaned out with an awl or similar pointy tool, or replaced.
Case 2. Still no fluid: Unscrew the hose at the car side so it doesn't twist or kink, and see if you get a stream of fluid under pedal pressure. When testing, have a wadded rag over the end of line to catch the fluid - the pressure is great enough to spray the other side of the garage, get in your eye or on your paint, etc. Also, press on the pedal about a dozen times when doing this; if the fluid all drained out of the system before you started bleeding the brakes, (if you overhauled some part of the brake system) it can take a surprisingly long time to pump fluid throughout the system.
Soft brakes even after bleeding.
You probably still have air in the system somewhere. If you have had parts of the brake system disconnected, ensure that the bleed nipples for the wheel cylinders and front callipers are at the top, so that the air can all escape during the bleeding process. (The air bubbles rise to the top.)
Front brakes bled, but no luck at the other end.
The pressure limiting valve may be operating, try to press slowly on the brake pedal so that the fluid goes through with out making the valve close of, or the pressure limiting valve is seized this also means that the back brakes don’t work either. If so the valve will have to be repaired.
You have tried all of the above, but still have no luck!
You may want to invest in a simple vacuum pump to bleed the brakes. One such tool, is the "Mityvac Vacuum Pump / Brake Bleeding Kit." The pump is applied to a bleed nipple, and pulls fluid through the system. This technique has the advantage that the master cylinder does not require "priming" in order to get the bleeding process started. In my experience, the vacuum pump does a good job and is a one-person operation (with the exception of checking the results in the "conventional" fashion).
If you haven’t fixed your brakes what’s stopping you?
Changing the speedometer cable
1. Ensure that the engine is cool.
2. Follow the cable down from the back of the instrument cluster to the top of the gear box.
3. Alternatively, remove the right-hand road wheel and try to reach the end of the cable from below the
gearbox.
4. Undo the knurled nut which should be hand-tight.
5. If access is tight, remove the radiator.
6. If the nut is too tight, wear leather gloves for better grip.
7. If the nut is still too tight, use a 7/16 socket to undo the speedometer gear assembly which can then be
removed from the gearbox.
8. To prevent future problems, clean the speedometer cable nut threads and the fitting threads, lubricate
with antisieze grease and tighten to hand-tight.
Ensure there are no sharp bends or kinks in the new
cable. Cables vary in length depending on the year of car and whether it is RHD or LHD – specify
when ordering a new cable, or measure your present cable and order one the same length.
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