The next issue is the brakes, I believe they are off a 136, (not 100%) but they are 4 pots on the front & drums on the rear, the servo & M/C have been turned 90 degrees so they are now flat & not stuck up in the air.

They are currently plumbed so that the 1 set of the fronts & the rears are connected together, then the other fronts are on the other outlet. Is this correct & from the servo which should be which.

In the Haynes manual even in the Supplement it mentions 4 pots but shows a 2 pot system.

Thanks

Have you tried the skoda rapid / estelle Facebook group

or other such gathering haunts for RWD Škodas.

Don't do Faecesbook, it's the devil incarnate only surpassed by AI, I know I sound like a Luddite, but Faecesbook, tictok et al are a lot that is wrong with the world today & humans will regret their inventions.

However thank you for the suggestion, I set them up last night with one set of fronts & the rears on the port nearest the servo & the other set of fronts on the other port. They do work but I have a lot of travel, I thought I had bled all the air out, but it feels like there is still a lot in there.

6 hours ago, Bugrat said:

Don't do Faecesbook, it's the devil incarnate only surpassed by AI, I know I sound like a Luddite, but Faecesbook, tictok et al are a lot that is wrong with the world today & humans will regret their inventions.

A new name to me. 😄 I'm not far behind your opinions on both and though I'm not a Luddite the mobile phone my wife bought for me remains almost always on the desk next to the landline phone. This is the third version she bought the first according to Tesco records in 2008 with £20 on it which due to mickey-tacking was down to £12.78 end of last year, no top-ups whatsoever and when they switched off 3G Tesco added £5 free so back up to £17.78 which should easily see me through to the supposed 2G switch off in 2033. I was using a mate's mobile car phone in the 80s and TwatNavs when you had to wait to see the 5(?) satellites on the thing before it could work, so not a Luddite just fed up at regression rather than progression.

I'm not one Faceache either but would just ask someone I know who is to ask for me.

Lots of different ideas of how to get the air out of the system, depends on what's at the high point(s) of the system. I personally am never in any sort of rush to do any farting about on a car so used one-man, gravity, glass jar system, slow but often very effective first time.

For air still in the system, one method a stick against the seat base holding the pedal down at least overnight, easy, not much effort and you can do anything better than farting about with cars, which almost anything to me.

Or depending on how spongy the pedal is, a drive to shake the air bubbles to the highest point and bleed as required.

Or have the car at what ever angle(s) required to have a high bleed point(s) or avoid high tap points.

I assume you don't have servo brakes.

Good luck, let us know how you get on.

Sorry I should have thought of this before (old age forgetfulness) have a look and/or ask in and/or asking in the 'Classic SKODA Projects' forum. - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/forum/206-classic-skoda-projects/

56 minutes ago, nta16 said:

I assume you don't have servo brakes.

It actually does, now whether it needs it is another matter, I suspect not, I seem to remember it was overbraked with it (18 years ago), the intention was to get it back on the road with it fitted & then decide whether I should remove it or not.

I've just rebuilt the front calipers, the rear cylinders look new, I actually suspect it's the auto adjusters on the rear that are not auto adjusting correctly & allowing the cylinders to be pulled back all the way in. They have a setup I've never seen before, a bar going across with 2 little rollers which grip with a spring. I've just found on https://www.skopart24.com/en-gb/shop/Bremse-c35177861?offset=30&limit=30 that you can buy both the adjusting arm (damn out of stock) & rollers for not a lot (not check carriage yet) so I may buy them just to put my mind at rest they are not causing the issue.

Pedal feel, movement and slack does of course need the brakes adjusted as required but that feels a bit different to say spongy feel of air in the system. If you redone callipers you could try cracking off where the flexi-pipes goes into the callipers to check for fluid weeping and then perhaps at flexi to fixed pipe connections, similar for rear and so on in an effort to zone the issue down.

Unless you're disabled even when older like me, when your legs certainly lose some strength, I'd have not thought you shouldn't a servo on such a light vehicle also of course deaden or makes remote the feel of the brakes, braking to the vehicle should be the same with or with out the servo, and of course much of the braking relies on good quality appropriate tyres.

A quick look at those parts did remind me of the pedal end of the system, if it has a pedal spring and it is weak that will affect pedal slack, travel and feel as will any pivot point bushing and/or lubrication, or rust or wear (ovaling) or bending or even mats behind the pedals.

I am always very cautious about buying modern made parts for old cars from lots (and lots) of bad experience of such, often finding the old worn parts better than new p1ss-poorly made new parts so I suggest you check the operation of the rear auto adjusting, the use of the, in my case a very reluctant, glamorous assistant.

Good luck.

Okay so spent some more time today going over the brakes, re-bled them again for good measure, did get a tiny bit of air out but nothing to write home about. Then wondered if it could be the rear drums that were not adjusting up giving the long pedal, so took the drums off & put a jubilee clip around the cylinders to prevent the pistons moving, this did not improve the pedal. Slackened the jubilee clip of the OSR & whilst pressing the pedal watched the cylinderit only started to move for the last 25% of the push.

I then looked at the Servo to M/C connection, I measured how much of the pushrod was sticking out of the servo, it was about 13mm. I then measured how deep the point of contact would be & that was roughly 23mm which meant the pushrod had to move 10mm before the piston actually starts to move. As a temporary measure I placed a spacer in the bottom of the M/C to take up the slack, it was a bit too much, but then a plate between the servo & M/C got it just about right. This gives me a solid pedal at the start of the press, I then found that the OSR handbrake cable was corroded so that had to be resolved.

All this was caused by the difference between a genuine OEM unit which are no longer available & units which are sold as direct replacements from 3rd parties which are not a direct replacement.

Well done on finding this and sorting it.

10 hours ago, Bugrat said:

All this was caused by the difference between a genuine OEM unit which are no longer available & units which are sold as direct replacements from 3rd parties which are not a direct replacement.

Unfortunately a familiar story.

With those new to old cars or a particular marque or model when they asked about an issue one of the questions would be have new parts been fitted, difficult to know if the car is only recently owned and came with little or no history, as those without experience often assume a new part can't be at fault just because it's new. I always go on to never assume the part fitted is correct or works fully or correctly or is fitted correctly. Which leads me on to did you discover correct plumbing.

2 hours ago, nta16 said:

Which leads me on to did you discover correct plumbing.

I 'think' I have, or rather I have used this logic,

I know that the way it was plumbed was that one set of front pistons & the rear were on the same circuit, then the second pair of front pistons on the second circuit.

A standard MC pushes the first piston directly from the pushrod, then uses a spring to push the second piston, but has a failsafe that if the first circuit fails the second circuit gets pushed by the pushrod so that is how I have plumbed them in. This all seems to have worked as it should but we will see once we get to MOT time.

Thank You Nigel, it's always good to discuss as that fires things into the brain to think about. Hopefully this will assist somebody in the future, I hate to see a question asked, potential solutions offered & then no final confirmation of whether it worked or not.

Alan.