On Mon, 10 Aug 1998, Linda Long (IM) wrote:
> 1) When I removed the rubber dust cover off both cylinders there was
> this nastiest looking gray crud in there. It was powdery and sorta
> looked like lemon pepper seasoning. What was this growth?
I ran into this "stuff" when I rebuilt my long-empty clutch system. I
think it's what happens when brake fluid (poss. DOT3) meets the
corrosion-enhanced alloy Girling used in the making of our brake parts.
I think the DPO used DOT3 fluid in the car, as I found a half-empty bottle
of it. (*chuck*) The clutch and brakes have been sitting for a year and
still work. I used DOT4 for both systems.
> 2) My TRF parts catalogues says there should have been a spring inside
> the cylinder. It wasn't there. Any reason to be concerned? Was the
> crud mentioned in 1 above the remains of a decomposed spring?
If it were reddish powder, I'd say yes. But if it's grey, it's not made
of steel (unless someone dismantled the cylinder, ground up the spring,
and put the remnants back inside... unlikely)
If your brakes work good, don't worry about the spring. Its purpose was
probably to make sure there wasn't any play in the system prior to
bleeding. (I could be wrong)
-Malcolm
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