Hello,
I'm just putting the finishing touches on my bugeye restoration project, and
have run into some issues with the rear brakes, and clutch.
I am using a rebuilt 7/8 inch dual master, that was bead-blasted, and honed. I
cleaned out all the brake and clutch lines with carb cleaner, and then blew
them
out with compressed air. Since I was upgrading to front disk brakes, I thought
it would be best to upgrade the rear as well, so I pulled the brake backing
plates off a '78 rb midget (as well as the parking brake linkages), and
installed a new set of 3/4" brake cylinders. I am using my 'original' bearing
hubs, and brake drums ( dated 7/58). once I installed everything, and bolted on
the wheels, I noticed a lot of binding on the rear wheels ( in fact, I could
barely push the car out of the garage). After taking off both drums, they both
appear to be contacting the later brake backing plates. I compared my early
brake drums to later ones, and they have the same exact distance from the back
lip of the drum to the mounting surface. Has anyone done this, or run into this
problem??
As for the clutch...
This is the 'stiffest' clutch I have experience in any car, is that typical of
sprites??
I have a ribcase trans, but the new clutch slave cylinder is the 'early style'
7/8" (moss 180-655), to be compatible with my original clutch line and master.
All other clutch components are '1275 type' including the slave cyl 'push-rod'.
The 'new' clutch kit was part# COM710/kit from MiniMania.
Besides being very tough to bleed, are these clutches really that hard to
disengage? I can't imaging driving with this in traffic!
BTW - I am using 'sythetic brake fluid' since I am using all new components,
and
all lines were'flushed' first.
Regards - Bryan Vandiver (San Jose, CA)
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