Transit brakes are untouched by hand
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FORD has installed automatic equipment for the filling and bleeding of Transit braking systems at its Southampton factory.
The equipment automatically completes the entire cycle of vacuum evacuation, leak testing and filling of dual master cylinder systems after connection to the reservoir.
Hydraulic fluid is drawn from the plant supply, filtered, preconditioned by the removal of all air, and stored within the unit.
Air within the brake system is evacuated thus forming a vacuum.
Three separate leak checks are then performed on both the front and rear sections of the system, with any leak being immediately detected thus cancelling the filling cycle.
Ford claims that it is possible to determine if the leak is large or small and whether confined to front, rear or both sections of the circuit. Once the integrity of the braking system has been verified, the machine pressure fills the entire circuits with fluid to the correct level, Ford says that only minor modifications were necessary to the Transit's braking system.
These include alterations to the wheel cylinder seals and a change for a single-fill to a dualfill master cylinder reservoir.