Thread: Stuee's 101 Rebuild

Originally Posted by bed_bug

If you don't mind the shipping cost I can ask around.

Thanks for the offer but I'll chase up Spectrum Rubber first. They have a profile that looks very similar and roughly the same size as the original. Hopefully being based in Aus shipping shouldn't be too much.

edit* I've just found a local store that sells the same profiles so I'll give them a visit tomorrow and take my old seals along with me.

Turns out the tray wasn't in that great a shape. A lot of rivets have failed and some floor panels it turns out were only held on by a few rivets in total, and the wheel well's were flapping away in the breeze. I'm now going around and replacing every rivet I can access, and at the same time sanding the tray back ready for the raptor liner. Its starting to feel reasonably sound now and a lot more rigid. Tomorrow I'll be flipping the tray over (which will be a fun job with one person...) and working on the drivers side.

I wont try and get the raptor liner on before rego as the tray repairs are taking longer than I had hoped, and on further research you are supposed to let the raptor liner set for 2-3 days minimum before using the tray. Leaving the liner until after rego also means I'll have to strip off the tarp and hood sticks again too but at least I'll be able to fit it into the carport to do it then.

The weather here is not helping at all either, constant showers through the day and I'm working on the tray under a tarp that I rigged up. Paint is taking a lot longer to dry so I cant re-assemble things as quick as I'd like.

Some pics, not very good with the light though. Parts in various states of repair and painting. I've had to make a few new brackets out of galv angle as the old ones had fallen off, hopefully these last longer and dont rust out as quickly.

I got to the bottom of my brake warning light always being on today. When I pulled the shuttle valve apart today to find the valve was sitting bang in the middle I figured something else was wrong. I cleaned all the terminals etc and found that the connection on the shuttle valve was always closed.

I made an assumption that the shuttle valve acted to close a circuit which allows the power to flow through to the warning lamp. In actual fact the switch acts to short the circuit to ground in the failed state, so the warning lamp is always live and is simply waiting for an earth, either through the shuttle valve or through the test switch. Hopefully with my switch wiring (remembering I made a custom LED unit) I should be able to simply reverse the positive and negative feeds and it should work, in its current form, when the shuttle valve moves to the failed position it blows the fuse for the gauges. I suspect the shuttle valve may never work going by the corrosion I saw when I pulled the switch out, but at least its not sitting in a failed state as I thought it was.

QUESTION
I'm trying to figure out the behaviour of the apportioning valve. I found the following on the club forum and another military forum:

I believe it (the pushrod) is pushed out when you press the brake pedal, and the adjustable stop regulates how far it comes out, depending on how much weight you have on board. No weight and it comes out further and blocks more fluid passing to the rear cylinders.

I've been thinking that the spring inside the valve should keep the valve closed all the time and the lever pushes it back in as you get more load. This might means my apportioning valve is working properly, I just need to wait till my dad comes over to give me a hand tomorrow to test it out. From what I recall when testing with my wife (who's in Singapore shopping atm, big help that is ), I don't ever recall seeing the valve being pushed out when the brake pedal is depressed, but I'll have a good look tomorrow. My concern is that this would be a inspection fail if I take it over pits. Can anyone verify the behaviour of the valve?

In other news the 101 has beaten me again. I've accepted that I wont get it over pits in the next week but its still going in for exhaust on Monday, via a tilt tray through. The weather here has not helped and the amount of small jobs needing to be finished is getting too big. It doesn't help that the exhaust shop want the 101 for two days. It should be ready for me to take in on my next RDO in three weeks time, and I'll be a lot more comfortable that there's nothing wrong with it when I take it in.

From memory Stu, the spring holds the valve in and when you press the pedal it pushes out stopping fluid going to the rear brakes. With weight on the rear the sprung arm pushes it in and " apportions " fluid to the rear brakes. When I bled mine I put a spacer between the rod and lever holding the valve in.

As the setting tolerance on the gap is quite small, and the stroke of the valve is only about 5 mm, you have to question how effective the valve is going to be, and at how well they can be matched to the payload weight they are designed to work at.

Mine is ceased.... The day I took mine to 'The Pits' I was testing the brakes in the yard. The rears just wouldn't lock. As I needed to be on the road city bound for the vehicle test, I got underneath and gave the pushrod one good belt with a hammer and punch!! It went in about 4 mm, and bingo!!!! The rears lock!! Until I read this thread I'd forgotten about it! To be totally honest, with twin rear spare wheels and all the camping clutter in it I will prob end up removing it as there's plenty of weight at the rear, and I need the rear brakes to work!

When I was getting my 101 back on the road a few years back I bench tested the valve and found that in the position that equates to an unloaded 101 there is virtually no fluid going to the rear brakes but in the fully loaded position the rear brakes are fully functioning. I also found this out when I tried to bleed the rear brakes - sitting in the drive unloaded I could not bleed the rear brakes as the valve was closed - I tricked the valve into thinking the 101 was loaded and had no issues as fluid got through. So on a RTA roadworthy test that might specifically test the rear brakes a 101 might technically fail if unloaded.

My valve had a little leak and they are very expensive to replace so I put in a second hand landcruiser one - $45 at a wrecker - a couple of small modifications like the Jap threads on the brake pipes but has worked fine for 5 years.

Garry

Could a Falcon Van proportioning valve be looked at as a replacement?
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