Well, a problem I've never encountered, hence my other post for a foot valve...

Went to Amsterdam to work on RM46, fitted a recon foot valve, started the engine to bleed the brakes, after 3 minutes a loud bang, fluid everywhere; investigation showed the middle casting had fractured. So, contacted my supplier in the UK who'd never heard of the problem before. So, went back this week with another recon foot valve, and after 3 minutes, a loud bang as the second foot valve exploded. surely 2 units cannot have suffered metalk failure in a short space of time?

with help from Lionel Moss, he suggested a brake pipe may be blocked. I'd changed the 5 pipes from the chassis to the foot valve on my last visit with new pipes made locally, so surely that couldn't be the problem?

I took off the return pipe, tested with an air line, and yeah, it was blocked!! Where they'd made the pipe, they'd crimped one end too much and blocked it.

Which then led me with a problem as there were no more foot valves around, especially in Europe on a Tuesday evening. Luckily another client in Antwerp had an old one lying around, so that provide a replacement for the broken casting. Tried that with a new return pipe, and the system is now ok.

RM46 now has new accumulators, steering ram, foot valve and rear slack adjusters and drives like a dream.

Beware, if you have new pipes made, make sure they're not blocked before you fit them!

My bus number (if any): RML2532