Trying to give my dad's Mehari a once-over for an MOT after being off the road for a bit and I've noticed that the brake pedal has barely any movement compared to any other a-series I have driven. The brakes do work if you have a heavy foot, but nothing to write home about.

I didn't have much of a look but I did notice that the brake fluid reservoir is missing its cap... Drum brakes all round if that makes a difference.

Hints?

Seized cylinders from contaminated fluid seems to be the leading theory on Facebook.

Maybe pivots for brake shoes rusted up, if it's been standing that long?
In extreme cases, the shoes will just bend when the brake pedal is pressed, so there's minimal contact pressure between the linings and the drums...

It wasn't myself that set the brakes up last time as i hadn't learned how to do it properly by that point. I do remember a smear of copper grease going on the pivots to stop them sticking though.

Ah well, no point over-speculating until i get a good look, i guess. Annoyingly my dad has buggered off for the day so i have nobody to hold the brake pedal while i undo the hub nut!

I'm not sure if it's really necessary to undo the hub nut, but if you really want to, you can lock the wheel flange with a bar between the wheel nuts.

good idea! I have a pinch bar which might just do the job nicely. I want o undo the hub nuts to get a a look at the internals of the brakes, make sure nothing is siezed etc.

If you loose the 6 nuts at the drum you can take the driveshaft away without removing the hub nut, no???

what they^ said your taking the Driveshaft off the flange to get the drum off so dont bother fannying about at the hub end

I was being a total fool to be honest. I forgot that you could just undo it all at the drum...

Anyways, all the pivots are moving fine and the wheel cylinders don't seem bad. The shoes needed centred which seems to have improved the braking significantly but the pedal is still perplexing me.

Looking at the pedal box and MC today though, I got the impression that they might be transplants from another vehicle.

Anyone got photos of how it should all look for comparison?

Okay, so after having a better look and driving a few other cars over the last week or so, I've come to the conclusion that the brakes on the mehari are probably okay now and in actual fact it is the brakes on my own van that are shit and that is what i was comparing the mehari against for the most part.

I need to double-pump the brake pedal on my van for any effect. Am I right in thinking this is a sign that the wheel cylinder pistons are retracting too far?