No real questions here. Just talking. Er...so to speak. So to type, anyway.
[Get on with it, Jay! <BONK!>]
All this talk of brakes made my car jealous for attention. While tooting
around town visiting all the garage sales, the pedal went squishy. Its onset
was rather sudden--one stop felt fine, the next almost made me shit my pants.
The pedal now requires a double-pump before it feels anywhere close to right.
Very unnerving.
Working up the list of possibilities from 'easiest to fix' to 'could be off
the road for a while,' I got as far as pulling a drum to see if the cylinder
seals were leaking.
1. Tried to find my pair of safety glasses but couldn't. Sported the money
for another and a pair of chemical splash-proof goggles. No way I'm *ever*
getting an eyeful of brake fluid again.
2. Spider-crawled around under the car inspecting the line, and found no
signs of a leak anywhere. The fluid level isn't going down either.
3. Pulled the hose off the vacuum booster and found no signs of fluid there,
which was a relief.
4. Bled the system. First had to reassemble my homebrew eezibleed, this time
using the cap to a two-liter bottle of coke for the fluid reservoir cap
(Hey! It fits, alright?). No change.
5. Pulled the right-side drum, found some grease had gotten into things
somehow. No signs that the wheel cylinder or shaft seal are leaking. The
grease had to be from the last over-liberal coating I gave the wire wheel
splines. Cleaned all the grease and schmutz off. I'll check again sometime
in future to see if it returns.
6. Put everything back together, hosed myself down, and I'm now watching
Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Haven't figured out what the problem is, but I've at least identified a few
things that it's not. I'm done working on it for today. My gut's telling me
the master cylinder internal seals have gone kerflooey, but I'm giving the
whole thing a good going-over before I pull the MC.
And wouldn't you know, the Miatas were out EN FORCE today, and all with their
tops down. (Isn't that one of the signs of the apocalypse?) It was as if
they knew of my trouble and were rubbing it in my face. I did spy an MGB in
a parking lot while making it around town--a blue chrome-bumper with LE
wheels. That's right, Chris Lenth; I know where YOU live now. Muahaha!
To make the day even worse, the garage sales didn't have squat I wanted. Best
thing I found was a brand new coffee maker (needed this BADLY) for ten bucks.
I was really hoping to find some more old Atari games (anybody on the list
got some stashed in an attic somewhere?).
Man, it's been a long time since I've had to put in this kind of detective
work. Believe it or not, I've really missed it. Despite all the things that
made today crummy, it's still been pretty good. Turning myself into a
greasy, revolting mess was a real hoot.
What? Has the mailer gone wonky, or has nobody had anything to say all day?
--
Jay Tilton | jtilton@vt.edu
|