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Re: Disappearing Fluids

To: Christopher Ball <triumph@io.org>
Subject: Re: Disappearing Fluids
From: "W. Ray Gibbons" <gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu>
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 14:39:41 -0500 (EST)
> On Fri, 25 Mar 1994, Roland Dudley and Christopher Ball wrote:
(about master cylinders):

> the cylinder is scrap. You could, I guess, really enlarge it and SLEEVE 
> or reline the thing and thus achieve standard sizes again. Otherwise 
> you'd have to go to non-standard seals.

> It would have to be a rather rare or expensive part (say off a cobra ;-)
> or somthing) to merit that.

> Anyone else out there with some enlighting words?

The combined clutch and brake master cylinder from a bugeye is a fairly
expensive (about $280) unit.  I had mine bored out and resleeved in brass
by White Post Restorations for about $100, and rebuilt it with a $12 kit. 
That seemed a worthwhile saving. 

It works fine if the car is used regularly.  After it sits for a couple of
weeks or more, however, I have to remember to depress the brakes a time or
two before setting out.  If I forget, I grow a couple of new grey hairs
when I reach the end of the drive, which empties onto a busy street,
because the pedal does not firm up at the usual position (brakes engage
with the pedal closer to the floor than usual). 

To recap, brakes fine if used fairly regularly, but if the car sits for a
while, the pedal firms up below its usual position the first application. 
As far as I can tell, the car has not lost an ounce of fluid in 1-1/2 years.

Do any of you hydraulic experts understand this first application phenomenon?

   Ray Gibbons  Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
                Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
                gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu  (802) 656-8910





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