My '72 that was passed to me through family has been parked for 8+ years. I'm going to assume everything in the brake systems needs attention. While I'm not necessarily being cheap, I am trying to contain costs.

Questions I have:

1 - Should I and how do I flush the brake fluid? What product should I should I use and how much should I expect to need?

2 - I've read breaking loose the bolts to replace soft lines can result in ruined hardlines. What's the best method (product and/or procedure) to avoid damage?

3 - Should I assume the Master Cylinder needs to be rebuilt? Is there a way to test other than seeing if it works after everything else is taken care of? If it's bad can it reasonably be rebuilt or does it require a professional?

4 - Calipers: I know these need to be rebuilt. I'm contemplating trying to rebuild myself. I'm also contemplating sending them off to be done professionally. Any advise on which way I should go would be helpful.


Thanks ahead of time all you crazy teeners. Because everyone likes pictures, here it is just before being rescued. Also see signature for link to gallery.

Click to view attachment

Flushing the brakes only requires a lot of fresh brake fluid. When you bleed the brakes don't push the pedal all the way to the floor boards, you may ruin the rubber cups in the master cylinder running them over areas that might be corroded where they normally didn't travel. Push the pedal about 3/4 down and stop at that point. I would consider swaping the front calipers for BMW units, your year is a direct bolt on, see the article at Pelican parts. Cheap and easy to find. If your car is a So. Cal. original, you probably won't have trouble with the brake lines. Swapping out the rubber hoses would be a good idea, if your going for the BMW calipers, you need to change the front hard lines anyway. The master cylinders don't come cheap, I'd hope for the best and leave it alone till you have no choice but repairing it. Also if your calipers have a top and bottom bleeder, only bleed from the tops, the lower bleeder will leave your system full of air. Mike

Been thinking a lot about this over the last couple of weeks Scott. I've been going at it piecemeal - one little project at a time. Days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months, months turn into years. I think it would have taken much less time all round if I had of committed to doing it all in one big restoration project. Your brakes, fuel system, steering - are all suspect at this age of vehicle. If you have the space and patience I would really recommend doing everything at once. Looking back at it I should have:
Dropped the engine
Lightened the car for handling purposes - remove trunk lids, bumpers, fuel tank, maybe seats. Anything with signifcant weight.
If you don't have a lift get the car up in the air - at least 2 feet. Makes life underneath much nicer. Somewhere, probably years ago, there was a thread with a guy who put the car up on four wooden structures on wheels. Great idea.

Commit to dropping the stearing rack. Do turbo tie rods and rebuild the steering bushings. Threads exist to guide you.

Pull the entire brake system from calipers to brake cylinder. Get some of that nice copper/nickel brake lines from the folks in England. Get some new soft brake lines. You can rebuild your own brakes but it can be a little frustrating the first time. Eric Shea offers a great service to do this if quality is more important to you than the 'learning experience'. The master cylinder is a tough call. If it is the original you need to assume that it is probably on its last legs. General advice seems to be replace (around $300) rather than rebuild.

New fuel lines front to back is also high on the priority list. If nothing else do all the rubber lines but consider a set of Stainless Steel fuel lines to replace the nylon ones.

While the engine is down replace all the vacuum lines. Check the range of the CHT and replace if necessary. Check the function of the AAR and address as required.

This may seem like a huge list but if you do it all at once it won't be too bad. Once done you have the major safety components addressed. The car may still look scruffy. The engine may be cranky and tired. But at least you will be able to drive it confidently knowing you can stop, steer and the damned thing isn't going to catch on fire. Pretty good starting point for a long relationship with a great car.

spent some time looking at your photos - you have a great car there by the looks of it. Well worth the effort to keep her going.

The longs look original - one little hole is nothing. The lift points are intact - thats impressive if original. The hell hole obviously needs some work but it is not as bad as many that have been featured on these pages.

Good luck with your journey.

You should be able to do the whole brake system by yourself, except maybe rebuilding the master cylinder. You should do it all in one shot. Its not ridiculously hard and you will EVENTUALLY end up replacing all of it anyway.

Definitely rebuild the front and rear calipers. The fronts are pretty easy. The rears are a pain, but can be done. There are good instruction on Pelican. Also make sure that your rear rebuild kit comes with the notorious parking brake actuator o-ring. The kit I got from Pelican had it. Re-assembly of the P-brake will lead you to invent new four-letter words, but it really just takes patience.

Definitely replace all the soft lines. This is cheap and you'll be bleeding all four corners anyway after the caliper rebuilds. These will fail and lead to re-bleeding the entire system as you replace each defective hose. Ask me how I know.

Probably replace the master cylinder. After market ones are about $100, OEM's are much more. People here will tell you that an after market master cylinder can only lead to flaming death, but you can decide for yourself.

The hardest part of replacing a master cylinder is getting the plastic lines from the reservoir fully seated in the MC. I pulled my fuel tank and disconnected the plastic lines at the reservoir. That let me pull the plastic lines down and make sure they were really connected. I don't know how it can be done any other way, but many others have managed to do it. Replace the blue silicone hoses at the reservoir. Make sure to get the right hose. Don't use fuel line as the brake fluid will eat it.

After that, bleed, bleed and bleed again. Right rear, left rear, right front, left front. Repeat. Repeat. Buy your brake fluid in quart bottles and don't be stingy with it. ABSOLUTELY make sure that the venting clearances on your rear calipers are set correctly. You will never get a firm brake pedal without that. Bleeding will take a LOT longer than you think it should.

Why don't we have a brake bleeding smiley?

I did my fronts and rears with great success on my first 914 in High School auto shop to give you an idea of the complexity (meaning it's not too terribly difficult provided you have all the parts). As previously stated the rears are more complex than the fronts...

If you're not up to the task than you can pull all the calipers and send them off to Eric Shea (www.pmbperformance.com), then you'll likely never have to touch them again as they'll essentially be as good if not better than new...

I've given him lots of my $ recently because I could never do what he does...

PDXMike pretty much said it all, address the whole enchilada--Brakes aren't something you want to do half way, you're life may depend on them.

Here's the best instruction's I've seen but... I'm biased.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4...7a0c&type=1

I haven't found much on 914 World showing ATE Calipers being rebuilt.

I just found this description of similar calipers from a Ferrari 308.

I hope this helps anyone on here trying to do a rebuild. I'm currently working on my rear calipers. My front bleeder screws were so seized or broken that I'm getting re-manufactured. I'll let you know the source and price if it works out well.

ATE rear brake rebuild illustration

Odd...

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=24229

Also, the Ferrari Dino/308 caliper is the exact same caliper design as the 914-6... which is the exact same design as the 914. Every single step of the rebuild is exactly what would be needed with the standard 914-4 caliper.