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RE: Brake Caliper Conspiracy

To: "Triumphs List" <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Subject: RE: Brake Caliper Conspiracy
From: "Randall" <tr3driver@comcast.net>
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 11:33:35 -0800
> I agree that this may be a tempest in a teacup.

It probably is.  Are you willing to bet your life on it ?

Just a thought experiment : Take an ordinary paper clip and try to pull it apart
with your hands.  Can't do it, the tensile strength is far beyond what a human
can pull.  Now bend it back and forth a few dozen times.  Before long, it will
break in two !  You've exceeded it's "fatigue life" and it failed.  If you knew
just when to try, there is a point before it breaks where you can pull it apart
with your bare hands ... every fatigue cycle weakens it just a bit.

Now how many times does the entire caliper flex (yes, they flex, you can measure
it if you try) over it's lifetime ?  If the caliper flexes, do the bolts flex ?
If they flex, they fatigue.

I'm not saying those long-ago Girling engineers were right ... but they were
professional mechanical engineers !  And had access to data that we lack ...

Randall


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