1- I saw mention of 'dreaded DOT 3' brake fluid. What kind should
be used and what is wrong with DOT 3.
Use only Castrol GT "LMA" brake fluid. Not only is this
rated at DOT 4, but it is compatible with British rubber
seals in your hydraulic system. Standard US-spec DOT 3
fluid will dissolve your brake and clutch seals in fairly
short order. LMA also stands for "low moisture activity,"
meaning that it is non-hygroscopic to a high degree. This
helps keep the boiling point fairly low, and also helps
keep from rusting your brakes from the inside out.
2- I would like to top of the shocks in my MG, what kind of fluid
should be used. I can't find mention of it in either my Hayne's
manual or my Chilton's.
I'm not surprised by the failure of the Chilton's, but
for a Haynes not to have reference does surprise me. (You
need a Robert Bentley manual, which contains reprints of
the driver's handbooks for various years of MGs. You have
a B, don't you? I can't recall...)
In any case, you want either Armstrong shock oil or motorcycle
fork oil. Do not put in motor oil; it causes the seals to
"perish." The correct way to do this is to inject oil into
the shocks while raising and lowering the lever, so that the
new oil works its way into all the shock chambers. There are
several ways to do this. The most decorous is (at the front
of an MGB) to remove the nut and use a pistol-grip oil gun to
squirt some oil in. Of course your car will be on jackstands
all this time. Use the jack to raise and lower the lower A-arm
(and of course the upper one, which is connected to it) while
filling the jack with oil. (Note: on a B, anyway, don't remove
the valve! Remove the filler nut, which is about halfway up
the outboard side of the shock body.)
At the rear (of a B), it's simpler. Under the carpet piece (if
you still have yours) on the rear shelf you'll find two plastic
discs. Pop these out and you'll see two nuts in the holes
in the rear shelf. Remove these nuts and fill them with the
shock oil. Then you can either jack the axle up and down, or
if you're into simplicity, you can just bounce up and down on the
fender of the car to get the oil worked into the chambers of
the shock. That's the official FizzBall Racing way.
--Scott
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