I've been sort of silent for a while, but I thought that I'd jump in on the
seized brakes thread.
I had White Post Restorations resleeve the brake master for my AH 3000 III about
8 years ago, and I've had no problems whatsoever. (I also rebuilt the calipers,
turned the rotors, rebuilt the brake booster, and rebuilt the rear wheel
cylinders at the same time.) I should add that the resleeve was with a brass
sleeve. It was pretty cheap back then (~$25), but I think it's at least double
now. White Post is in Virginia and is a top restoration shop with a world-wide
reputation for excellence.
I had exactly the same symptoms on my Mercedes 250 sedan. I rebuilt the front
calipers and they seemed to work fine until I used them in actual driving. Then
I noticed a severe hanging of the right caliper, to the point of causing the
pads to smoke. It was the flexible hose that caused the problem. The exterior
looked fine, no cracks, but it clearly had an internal problem that showed up
when I tried to force air through it. I replaced both front hoses (to the M-B
tune of about $50 :-( ) and have had no further recurrence of the problem.
On another note, my Austin Healey had been sitting for about two years with a
full tank of alcohol-laced gasoline. When I went back to crank it up, I
discovered that the jet diaphragms on the HD8s had practically dissolved (what
a surprise :-)) and I had to rebuild the damn things....again. NOTE to Roger
Garnett....your jet-setting (no pun intended) procedures are a little different
than the factory manual, so I used a combination of the two. I played around
with the idle settings as you suggested, but used the factory technique to
actually set the jets (they suggest segregating the throttles, raising the
piston on the carb not getting set, adjust the single jet (which, on the
HD8 is done by a simple easily-accessible screw, not a nut like the HS4s on my
old MGA), raise the piston on the just set carb slightly, which should cause
a slight increase in engine speed, and then repeating the pattern for the other
carb). After that I re-synced the idles and the engine sounded better than I
ever remember (perhaps it's the holes in the exhaust system that make it
sound so good).
General question: I have to do a good bit of body work on several of my
vehicles (dreaded rust repair). I have an Oxy-acetylene torch, but I
understand that a MIG setup is infinitely better for dealing with sheet
metal. Since a simple MIG unit can be had for $300-400, how hard are they to
learn how to use??? Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to look for
in purchasing such a unit??? and what might be useful but not essential???
Eric Dashman
dashman@etype.rti.org
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