On Fri, 14 Mar 1997, Barry H. Adams wrote:
> A friend recently purchased a 72 Spitfire with less than 3k total miles!!
> Everything worked ok until about 2 weeks ago when the brake warning light
> came on. He checked for leaks and the functioning of the pwd valve and
> bled the system. No leaks were found and the pwd and the brakes seemed to
> function properly, but the light was still on. He then took the car to a
> K-Mart repair shop (big mistake) they said he needed a new master cylinder
> and returned the car to him with the brakes barely working at all (pedal
> would hold only momentarily and then slowly go to the floor).
Well, most Kmarts now have Penske Auto Centers. How bad could they be? ;-)
> ...Is this a MC problem? If not, any ideas on what he should do next?
Actually, it seems likely that the master cylinder would benefit from a
rebuild. I've seen any number of occasions where they "leak internally";
no fluid escapes, but the seals simply no longer keep all the fluid in
its proper chamber (or wherever it's supposed to be going).
A rebuild with a proper Lucas/Girling rebuild kit is fairly
straightforward. Bleeding the system upon reassembly is often the
toughest part on these, but a Mityvac or similar pressure bleeding system
might help.
--Andy
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* Andrew Mace, President and *
* 10/Herald/Vitesse (Sports 6) Consultant *
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* amace@unix2.nysed.gov *
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p.s. Did I read right? This car only has 3k miles? Cool!
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