Where have you all gone!

[ecosselynx]

Hi

Has everyone left their computers and gone to the garage to get on with the winter work list! If so then spare a bit to time to share your experiances with the rest of us.

I had my car out the other week and found the brake pedal to be very heavy (no servo), by way of checking I by-passed the non-return valve and every thing was back to normal, I'll need to get a new one fitted before spring. other than that it should just be the usual winter cleaning and checking.

John

[JAGAZ]

Hello there.It is a bit quiet around here at the moment.I`m putting the final touches to my paintwork this weekend so i can re fit all the chrome work ready for the MOT.Can`t believe its` nearly 8 years since i last drove here.I can`t wait.Last weekend i tried fitting the electronic trigger to one of my su fuel pumps only to find i had a duff unit.Two years since i purchased it so no hope of a refund or replacement i guess.rebuilt both the pumps to standard and they work perfect.Hope to have it on the road before xmas so i can enjoy it while i`m off work over the festive holiday.Next year is going to be a good year,only downside i can see is having to visit the petrol station so often.
You should consider a checkover on all the braking system over the winter.I`ve just finished a total rebuild of my whole system and was surprised at what was not as ok as first seemed to be.Brakes are unbelievable now and well worth the effort.Made all my own copper brake lines,replaced all the caliper pistons and seals and repainted the assemblies.Rebuilt the remote servo and master cylinder and repainted them .Satisfied to know i did it all myself and it looks good too .
Anyone else done or doing anything,we all need to hear that we aren`t the only ones getting our hands dirty.

[NigelH]

Hi All,
Not getting my hands dirty just yet as stuck at work for another week or so, but you have reminded me I must look at my brakes before too much longer.

I have only recently bought the car so am still feeling my way around it.
The original servo and tank have been replaced with an "uprated" servo by the previous owner. The car stops beautifully.....after the pedal has been pumped once.
I assume/hope it's just a simply bleed that is required to remove any air.
Anything I should be aware of or is it a straight forward job?

Any advice or suggestions gratefully received.

Nigel

[ecosselynx]

Hi Nigel

Would suggest that if you don't know the age of the brake fluid, you might just want to change it out for new fluid when bleeding your brakes. This will hopefully bring back your pedal and at the same time give you a date of when the fluid was changed out, most people recommend changing the fluid out every two years.

regards

[NigelH]

Thanks for that.

Think the fluid is fairly recent but will check with the previous owner. Very amenable chap and said to ring him with any questions that I have.
He left me some fluid in the boot with a load of other stuff and it's one I've never heard of. It's a DOT 5 something or other. Everything he has done to the car is good and I don't doubt it's the correct stuff for the job but I'll bet it's the most expensive fluid on the shelf .

Probably should start a new thread in another section but.....what oil is best to use in the carb dash pots?
My only other experience is with Strombergs on a Stag. I used engine oil and occaisionally redex. Can I do this with SU's?

Cheers,
Nigel

[piman]

Hello Nigel,

Dot 5 is usually silicone brake fluid (and yes, it is expensive and not always easy to find at the usual motor shops). Don't use conventional Dot 4 as a top up. If you look there may be a label somewhere near the master cylinder stating that? It is not necessary to do the bi annual fluid change with silicone either, as it is not hygroscopic.

I've always used 20\50 engine oil to top up S.U. carburettors.

Alec

[NigelH]

Cheers Alec.

Good news on the longevity of the stuff but as suspected.......hits the pocket harder

Am I correct in thinking that the silicon fluid does less damage to paintwork?
No matter how hard I try I always end up with it somewhere it shouldn't be.

Nigel

[piman]

Hello Nigel,

yes that is right, it is harmless to paintwork.

If you look on the web regarding silicone brake fluid you will find all sorts of horror stories about it.
Personally I've used it for probably thirty years now and have not had any of the problems with it people talk about.

Alec

[Martec]

Hi,

Nice to see this site up and running again, unfortunately I have been spending a lot of time in the garage.

After last years run to Croatia I had a lot of problems to sort out, replacing the 45amp alternator with a 65amp one, updating the ECU to overcome spiking from the old starter motor, and then bending its spindle and having to fit a new nippondenso starter. A local firm replaced a cracked exhaust bellows and I replacing the Oxygen probe in the exhaust and retuning the gas system to suit.

All seemed fine until just before the Entente Cordiale and a brake fluid leak appeared, it seemed to be coming from a rear compensating valve so I removed it. Unfortunately at our stop near Paris it became obvious we were still losing fluid and into the servo.

We completed the holiday and got home and sent the servo to be reconditioned, whilst it was away I stripped and replaced all the brake caliper pistons an seals, the clutch slave cylinder had been replaced earlier and then had the problem of the 'New' clutch master piston and seal that didn't fit mine so turned up a new longer piston.

All worked but there were niggles, strange braking effects, heavy vibrations at low speed braking, brakes occasionally binding and as usual the discomfort of long journeys. 5 months after the recon servo in the middle of an MOT a leak appeared at the rear 'T' piece, but also the brake lights jammed on!! The heavy judder was found in the drivers front wheel.

At home with the car jacked up heavy application of the brakes with the engine running locked all the wheels. With the engine off they were still locked 3 hours later, I disconnected the master cylinder and they were still locked!!! I took the servo back and they rebuilt me another one, I replaced the pipe at the rear and took a lot of slack out of the wheel bearing (stub axle is worn at the inner bearing) and passed the MOT. I've replaced the standard NGK plugs BRP6ES with BRP5 EIX (iridium) to hopefully extent the plug life past 1800 miles (yes 1800 as the LPG eats them).

From one of my suspension manuals I found a link between the front and rear suspension frequency of bounce. The incorrect frequency caused pitching which is giving me back and neck ache. A friend corner weighted the car and the using my wife and grandaughter as weight in the boot and then on the front bumper I worked out the natural frequency of either end on standard springs and uprated ones. Neither gives the correct frequency link either too soft or to hard, so I'm off to see Ken Jenkins on Friday to compare a car he has at present and let him cast his eye over my car/problems.

Due to this never ending problem solving and cost we are not taking it overseas this year or until I can drive it in comfort.

Brian

[NigelH]

Interesting bunch of problems you've got there Brian.

I had a V8 Discovery running on LPG a few years ago.
I was on first name terms with NGK's R&D department in the quest for a suitable set of plugs

Got there in the end but I think I remember them being several grades hotter than even the NGK boys were expecting.
One of the biggest increases in reliability and performance came from fitting Magnacor plug leads. These had lasted 3 years and were still going strong when I sold the car. OE leads were fried within a few thousand miles and one set of plugs and leads only lasted 200 miles..........of course I can laugh about it now,and my hair has grown back

Off to surf the web for Silicon brake fluid horror stories....

Nigel

[Martec]

Not sure I've got the right plugs, time will tell, they do sell LPG specific plugs but you would need to sell the car to pay for them!

When I put my car back on the road (30years in bits in someone elses garage) I rebuilt my servo and everything else and filled it with silicon fluid. Within a short space of time the brakes would lock on and only release on the count of 5. I became quite adept at judging when to release the foot brake. A call to Ken Jenkins explained that the Lockheed servo didn't like silicone fluid as the lockheed seals expanded and jammed. I changed the fluid to DOT4 and shortly afterwards it all freed up, 11 years down the line I'm going through this trouble again.

Apparently Girling seals are fine in silicone but Lockheed not, I've not used it since.

Brian

[stuarthardy]

Hi Nigel

Be careful because your brake fluid might not be silicone based. DOT 5 is indeed silicone based but DOT 5.1 is not. DOT 5.1 is synthetic but is designed around DOT 4 parameters and intended for the demands of high frequency ABS systems.

DOT 5 was originally intended for military applications as it is more durable than DOT 3 &4 fluids. Whilst it is not hygroscopic you may still get water in your hydraulic system, it just won't be absorbed by the fluid but instead will lurk as droplets ready to cause corrosion.

I have also heard of DOT 5 causing seal failure if the seals have previously been used with DOT 3 or 4 fluids but have no direct experience of this.

Regards

[piman]

Hello Brian,

I had a similar problem with servos I'd rebuilt but the problem was that the piston seal was of the incorrect specification and the piston would not return to the static position. Refitted the old original seals and the problem was cured. These were Girling servos by the way, and I was using silicone brake fluid with them. I also ran my Mk 2 for many years on silicone with no problems at all. As it has been laid up for a long time I'm going to be very interested in seeing the condition of the brakes when I do get on with the restoration to see if they are still in good condition.

Alec

[J44EAG]

This is an interesting article on the subject.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j& ... -g&cad=rja

Mike

[Martec]

The guys who rebuilt my servo kept asking if I had used silicone fluid and I could confirm I hadn't. When looking at a local factors shelf of brake fluids (5 different makes) some said they were synthetic and other nothing at all and some DOT 5 were silicone. I was confused by the reference to synthetic and silicone, but was then 'told' that synthetic was fine but not silicone, I have a well known make of synthetic in now.

So from the above link/article it would seem I suffered from indifferent seals as I had used Automec fluid!

Brian