Oh happy day!
I just finished repacking all the hydraulic cylinders on my MGA 1500. Last
service was 12 years and 129,000 miles ago when it got all new brake parts.
Cast iron brake/clutch master cylinder, four iron front wheel cylinders,
two aluminum rear wheel cylinders, and the aluminum clutch slave cylinder
all cleaned up with a bit of honing and took the fresh rubber bits just
fine with no leaks.
Service history was silicone fluid and flush the system at least once every
two years. Treat your car right and $60 worth of repacking kits beats the
bejaggers out of hundreds of dollars worth of new cylinders or sleaving.
Incidentally, the rubber cups that came out of the system were still in
quite good condition, firm and rubbery, and with all the original moulded
lettering still looking almost line new. I had a notion to put them all
back in just to see how long they might last, but I was changing fluid
type, so no way.
While I was at it I changed all the hoses. The right front brake hose was
flowing a little slow but still servicable. Other hoses were still in
(appearantly) good condition, but getting just a little soft. Looks like
that change was none too soon. Next time around, 10 years or 100,000 miles
whichever comes first.
And before I took it all apart I flushed the system with denatured alcohol
and blew it out with compressed air. When finished I filled it up with
Casterol LMA DOT-4 fluid. Now if you have enough patience, give it another
10 years or so and I should have an nice fluid comparison report. But I
suspect the next report will be about the same, frequent fluid changes and
cylinders still in good condition. Nice that the DOT-4 fluid is only about
1/4 the price of the DOT-5 fluid, and I only needed one quart to fill and
flush the system with the Eezibleed.
I did change the short pipes between the wheel cylinders at both front
wheels (drum brakes). The fittings were rusted to the pipe a little, and I
managed to twist off the pipe at both ends on the right side only. While I
was making a new pipe I figured it a good idea to change the other side as
well. The pipes looked good on the inside, and all the other pipes were
still either shiny or painted with no visible rust, so still hanging in there.
I did change out the pedal clevises and clevis pins about a year ago, so
nothing needed there this time around. The holes in the top of the pedals
were in surprisingly good condition, considering that it's been 12 years
since I welded and redrilled those holes. Must be that the clevis pins are
softer that the pedal steel, so the cheap pins are sacrificed to save the
pedals. Nice trade off.
Incidentally, the only parts I had to buy for this (recently) were two
brake hoses and the fluids. All the rest of the bits came out of my spares
bin.
And I picked up a couple of like new (maybe actually new, never painted,
with a few green inspection paint splotches) front shock absorbers ($40
each) at last Sunday's Brit Car Feat in DesPlaines, IL. One just went on
the right front to replace Apple Hydraulics rebuilt #8. I'm still waiting
for #9 on the left side to fail, expecting it soon.
Feels good all over today,
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
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