I recently had a lucky experience with brake failure; it could easily have gone
very badly. On my short trip home from work in my TR6, the brake pedal went
very mushy on the last stop I had to make before reaching my driveway. By the
time I reached my garage the pedal was going to the floor, and I actually made
the final stop with the hand brake. When I checked the reservoir, it was full,
and there doesn't seem to be any leakage anywhere. The front disc pads are
okay and the rear drum linings are pretty good too. I'm thinking that the
rubber piston seals in the dual line master cylinder must be shot, both front
and back. It isn't likely that both would go at once, right? So my recent
thought that I seemed to be pushing harder on the pedal to stop should have
been my clue to check things out!
I am getting ready to place an order for the repair kits: MC, drums, and
calipers. But it just occurred to me that I also need to replace the rear
brake pipes that go from the flexible tubes to the drums; one of them is
smashed nearly flat. Neither VB nor Moss lists those as being available. VB
has steel pipes in various lengths, and Moss has a whole replacement kit in a
copper nickel alloy "that resists corrosion." Do you any of you folks have
experience with the steel lines? Do they corrode? And, since I am sitting
here at work, far from my TR6, does anyone know the length of those rear pipes?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Tim
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Tim Gaines
Clinton, SC
1980 Spitfire
1974 TR6
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