Servo problem? (not upgrade)

afternoon all!

well the mk1 is starting to take shape now, drove it on private land and the brakes are terrible..

its feels as though there is no servo at all. there is a little travel and then a hard pedal (which doesnt seem to stop much)

ive pumped the pedal, held it and started the car and it took a few seconds but the pedal did drop slowly. I compared this to my '93 Polo which was almost instant.

I havent looked at the brakes themselves yet but was wondering if the servo is known problem (i know of the upgrade to Mk2 spec but assumed this was mainly for improved brake performance)

The car was sat for a year before we got it so could the servo have gone bad?

Ill be looking to upgrade to the mk2 servo/mc in the future but for now it will have to stay as is unless needed

Its a '83 1.6D

thanks in advance

Aaron

Could be loads of things, eg:

Brake fluid
Pads worn
Discs rusty
Rears seized or not adjusted
etc

But I'd say not the servo, the test you've done indicates it works and they don't really "go" like that.

What about the vacuum pump? Try disconnecting the pipe and feeling the suction.

ok well ill get the wheels of as im swapping to the 14's i have on my Polo anyways. I think its gonna be rusty discs tbh as the handbrake on the rear works perfectly.

is it wise to "clean up" a rusty disc? i.e take the rust off with wet and dry etc?

ive looked through the old MOT's online and looks like its had brake binding issues in the past but was passed a month later so id like to think that the rest is in good working order.

Only reason a suspected servo is as it seemed a lot slower to drop than my Mk3 Polo on the test.

Where is the vacuum pump on the diesels? I had thought it may be a perished vacuum hose as it was slow, so worth a look.

ok so i had a look at the brakes (and wish i hadnt!)

it seems to still be running those puny little square pads in a caliper im not familiar with. can these calipers be changed to the later polo type (239 solid disc)? or should i just upgrade to vented 239s for now?
 
my long terms plan is GM 256's and 16v servo/mc but i just cant stretch to it right now (the other half is still unsure if we were right to buy the car as its a bit of an unknown entity really).

ill see how the MOT goes tomorrow and go from there…

Where is the vacuum pump on the diesels?

Its on the front of the engine in the hole that they stick the distributor in on the 1500-1800 Petrol models.

On the diesels the vacuum pumps do take a few seconds to build up, its not instant like the vacuum from the inlet on a petrol model.

If you have been driving a much newer car MK1 Golf pedal feel does seem terrible when you first start driving it, but you do get used to it after a while.