Nigel,
I concur. I can easily lock up my rear wheels with the handbrake on my TD.
Bud Krueger
52TD
77MGB
Nigel Geach (CRFPULP) wrote:
> Rock,
> Fully agree with your thoughts on safety, when I was learning to drive in
> the early sixties, my dad insisted that I never believe the other guy's
> signals until we saw him commit to the turn, etc. I still don't believe
> their signals, and it's saved me several times. But I must take exception to
> your comments on TC hand brakes. I presently have a leaking right front
> cylinder (which I'll fix this winter), and have been forced to use the
> handbrake a few times. Mine has great stopping power, and can be feathered
> to allow variable braking because the thumb button must be pressed to set
> the brake (most modern brakes set automatically, and require the button to
> be pressed to release). In short, the hand brake was designed to be a viable
> alternative to the hydraulics, and it works well.
> Cheers,
> Nigel
> '46 TC (#0710)
> '73 Triumph Trident 750
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Rocky Frisco [SMTP:rock@rocky-frisco.com]
> > Sent: November 3, 1999 10:35 PM
> > To: mgs@autox.team.net
> > Cc: mg-t@autox.team.net
> > Subject: More Brake Stuff
> >
> > Long rambly discourse on safety and such; feel free to ignore.
> >
> > When I was first out of High School, 1956, 18 years old, I bought a 1949
> > MG-TC for $1100. It was beautiful. Within the first month it damned near
> > killed me. I was tooling down the hill west of Columbia Ave. on 15th
> > Street in Tulsa in the afternoon traffic, hit the brakes and they went
> > to the floor with no resistance at all except the return spring. I tried
> > the hand brake, which was typical of the T-Series I've worked on in that
> > it didn't do much. Anybody who has ever experienced catastrophic brake
> > failure knows that it feels like the car *speeds up* instead of slowing
> > when you hit the floor with the pedal.
> >
> > I'm sure it's just psychological, because one expects to feel
> > deceleration and doesn't, but it's a really frightening thing when it
> > happens. I saved my neck and the car by scraping the right-hand tires on
> > the curb until the car stopped. Luckily nobody was close to the curb, so
> > there was actually room for the MG between the right-hand lane cars and
> > the curb, but it was *very* close. That *really* scared me.
> >
> > It turned out the seals in the wheel cylinders had little daisy-shaped
> > metal pieces to help keep the rubber firm. One of the tiny, flimsy
> > little "petals" had broken off and the seal had totally quit sealing,
> > causing the entire brake system to fail. I dismantled the entire system
> > and replaced all of these deadly little daisies with proper modern seals
> > & never had any more trouble. That taught me something.
> >
> > I never take for granted that mechanical things are just always going to
> > work. When I'm in a potentially dangerous situation, I like to tap the
> > brakes lightly to make sure they are responding and I always try to
> > avoid panic stops except in competition. Murphy was right when he added
> > that things usually will go wrong at the worst possible time. This is
> > logical: maximum stress on a system that's approaching failure will
> > cause it to fail right then. It makes me wince when some lady speeds
> > right up to the stop sign and stands on the brake at the last possible
> > minute, with a car full of kids and groceries, never even considering
> > that the brakes might fail.
> >
> > I have had three very good friends killed and others injured because
> > they were out having a good time and conversation with friends while
> > driving home from a gig and just took for granted that nobody would fly
> > through a red traffic light at 80 mph through a blind intersection. Four
> > separate occasions of this over the years have left distrust of other
> > drivers engraved on my attitudes. I don't whiz through intersections
> > unless I can see they are clear and nobody is approaching in an
> > intersecting trajectory, or completely blocked by stopped traffic.
> >
> > The one that nailed the Mini a year ago suckered me; she almost stopped,
> > gave every indication she was stopping, then accelerated right into me.
> >
> > -Rock, who got a killed Mini and 70% hearing damage in right ear from
> > that one.
> > --
> > Rocky, JJ Cale Band & Pratchett Books: http://www.rocky-frisco.com
> > Rocky's Mini Cooper Page: http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/6437/
> > Mini Books: http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/6437/rockboox.html
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