Mike,
Thanks for the comments.
I'm not sure that 'swelling' of the rubber components would be an issue here,
since I just put the fluid in the system for the first time last Sunday, and
experience the problem immediately upon bleeding the system that same day. All
my brake and clutch components were band new, and the master was rebuilt with a
new kit. I thought that any problems with swelling were only with early
'natural
rubber' components, and not with the newer 'modern rubber'. The brake lines
also had several weeks to dry out before I put fluid in them, and I blew them
out with air so I don't think there was any residual gunk in them.
I know there has been a big debate, on synthetic vs standard bake fluid, but
everything I've read seems to indicate that the only time there is a problem,
is
if the system originally had standard fluid, and was flushed in place and
converted to synthetic. Since I started with a 'dry' system with all new
components, I thought everything would be OK. Let me know what you think.
Regards - Bryan
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>To: Bryan Vandiver <Bryan.Vandiver@eng.sun.com>
>CC: spridgets@autox.team.net
>Subject: Re: Bugeye rear brake upgrade and clutch problems.
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>Bryan,
> In my experience, you should NOT flush the brake lines with anything other
than
>brake fluid. If there is still too much gunk inside, you might consider new
steel
>brake lines. Not as daunting a task as it sounds. There are several options
>available to replace them. You can get them bre-bent from Classic Tube, get a
kit
>of lines from Moss Motors that you bend into shape by copying the original
lines or
>you can buy a flaring tool from MiniMania and Classic tube will sell you any
length
>of 1/8th steel tubing and make your own kit.
> As to the synthetic brake fluid, if you are using Lockheed RUBBER parts
>in
your
>master cylinder and slave cylinders, you might be experiencing swelling of the
>rubber. Synthetic fluid and rubber parts don't seem to mix very well.
> If you go back and flush the system out a couple of times with Castrol LMA
>Brake Fluid, rebuild the master cylinder and slave cylinders with new rubber
kits
>and use the Castrol fluid exclusively, I think your brake problem will be
solved.
>Mike MacLean-60 Sprite
>
>Bryan Vandiver wrote:
>
>> 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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