|Date: 5-12-93 10:34am
|From: Dean Zywicki:dcrt:nih
| To: {british-cars@autox.team.net}:BITNET
|Subj: midget adventures
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The traffic sure has been light lately so I'll post about my
afternoon adventures yesterday. A while ago, I had ordered an oil
cooler setup for my 1500 midget. I ordered the TRF kit for the spitfire
1500 figuring they would be the same. The hoses were way too short.
Yesterday, I finally went to try to work out a trade with the LBCP
(local brit car place) for some long MGB hoses. The hoses I had were
20" and 28" and I wanted 2 47" hoses. The owner was in a good mood and
I had been waiting for about 45 minutes so he just traded even with me.
So I went home to install the oil cooler. It was a little cramped, but
I finally worked out a decent mounting solution. I took a 14" piece of
2 X 4 and wedged it into the valence in front of the radiator. It fits
perfectly. I used some big sheet metal screws to hold the cooler to the
block of wood and sheet metal screws through the bottom of the valence
to hold the block of wood in place. I ran it for a few minutes to check
the connections and then decided to head out for a test drive.
The pressure gauge was reading 50+ lbs and everything seemed fine.
Then I noticed some smoke coming from behind me. Not a huge amount. I
wouldn't have noticed it if the cars behind be hadn't had their
headlights on. I had gone about 2 miles by now, so I pulled over into a
gas station and popped the bonnet. Of course one of the connections on
the sandwhich plated was leaking. I tightened it up and bought two
quarts of Exxon oil for $3.00/quart (what a bargain) and was going to
head home. All of a sudden the clutch peadl starts feeling real funny
and grabbing real low in the travel. Looks like my master cylinder was
finally dying on me.
I managed to get home by 9:15. I decided there was no better time
than the present to check if I needed a new master cylinder or just a
rebuild kit. So after draining the brake master cylinder and the clutch
master cylinder I tried to take out just the clutch MC. But, of course
it wasn't that easy. I had to take out the whole pedal box assembly
with the clutch and brake MC's. I took the MC apart and the bore looked
really good. The fluid was real dark, so I assumed the rubber was
slowly dying. So hopefully it won't rain and I'll be able to get it all
back together tonight, hopefully.
Later,
Dean
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