Thanks for some encouragement on rebuilding the hydraulics. I am about to try
to recapture my youth (Heck, I'm only 48!) and I am looking at buying a '77
Midget that needs all the hydraulics rebuilt.
I have read a good report on the different fluids on the Vintage Triumph
Register tech page. If I understood it all, they recommend silicone for a
restoration or show car (my words) because of its long life a water
resistance. But, it is slightly compressible so it might not be good for a
daily driver or autocrosser. DOT 4 would apparently be better for those
applications.
I haven't looked at the team.net FAQs yet, but since I am a newbie here, I was
hoping to open a thread on brake fluid. What do you prefer and how do you use
your LBC? Any other comments or suggestions?
Thanks for all the info you listers provide. It is not only educational, but
it gives the inspiration needed to undertake such an undertaking. (No, I'm
not an undertaker.)
Allen Hefner
'63 Sunbeam Alpine Ser. III (LONG GONE!)
'67 TR4A IRS (LONG GONE!)
'67 Rover 2000 TC (LONG GONE!)
'92 Mitsubishi Expo LRV Sport
(SOON AN LBC!)
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Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 18:37:42
From: Barney Gaylord <barneymg@ntsource.com>
Subject: MGA, refurbished all hydraulics - good report
Oh happy day!
I just finished repacking all the hydraulic cylinders on my MGA 1500. Last
service was 12 years and 129,000 miles ago when it got all new brake parts.
Cast iron brake/clutch master cylinder, four iron front wheel cylinders,
two aluminum rear wheel cylinders, and the aluminum clutch slave cylinder
all cleaned up with a bit of honing and took the fresh rubber bits just
fine with no leaks.
Service history was silicone fluid and flush the system at least once every
two years. Treat your car right and $60 worth of repacking kits beats the
bejaggers out of hundreds of dollars worth of new cylinders or sleaving.
Incidentally, the rubber cups that came out of the system were still in
quite good condition, firm and rubbery, and with all the original moulded
lettering still looking almost line new. I had a notion to put them all
back in just to see how long they might last, but I was changing fluid
type, so no way.
And before I took it all apart I flushed the system with denatured alcohol
and blew it out with compressed air. When finished I filled it up with
Casterol LMA DOT-4 fluid. Now if you have enough patience, give it another
10 years or so and I should have an nice fluid comparison report. But I
suspect the next report will be about the same, frequent fluid changes and
cylinders still in good condition. Nice that the DOT-4 fluid is only about
1/4 the price of the DOT-5 fluid, and I only needed one quart to fill and
flush the system with the Eezibleed.
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