Greetings listers,
I thought I'd share with you my idiot story of this past weekend in the hopes
that it
will prevent someone else from making the same stupid mistake.
As the weather here is getting much nicer these days, I've started to use my
car more
and decided last weekend that I'd bring it over to the shop for an oil change
and a
quick look over before a couple of club events that were coming up this past
week.
While I had the car up, I noticed one of the rebound rubbers on the back axle
was torn
and was just about ready to fall off. I figured it would be just my luck that
it
would come off and get stuck on the exhaust and melt into oblivion, stinking up
the
car to the point where my wife's tolerance for "motoring" would be exceeded,
leaving
me traveling alone alot. I took it off thinking I would get a new one and put
it on
in the next week or two.
Wednesday came and I took the car over to our local club's social dinner nite
and back
with no problem - of course I caravaned with another member of the club, so
naturally
nothing went wrong...
Saturday, I was invited to attend a tech session at a neighboring club in
northern NJ
and off I went. About an hour into my trip I discovered I had no brake pedal.
Not a
real problem since the parking brake on the '4 is very efficient at stopping
the car.
I pulled over to investigate and the fluid level in the master was quite low,
but not
empty. There was no sign of wetness around the master. I pumped the pedal a
few more
times and watched the fluid level drop accordingly so I began checking each
wheel for
a leak. Sure enough, I had a leak at the wheel where I pulled off the rebound
rubber. It seems that without the rubber, the axle will wedge itself tight
enough
into the retaining strap that the brake line can become pinched and eventually
cut
from the strap. Funny thing was that I didn't notice any diminished braking
prior to
the loss of the pedal. I suppose since the rear wheels don't contribute to
braking as
much as the fronts, I just didn't notice it.
Luckily, I carry a small line clamp for pinching off hoses, etc. and I pulled
the car
up onto a curb so I could shimmy underneath. I attached the clamp to the rear
brake
hose and limped home gingerly applying the brake pedal and hand brake at the
same
time.
Moral of the story is to keep an eye on those rebound rubbers and make sure
your lines
are routed in such a way as they can't get pinched!
Regards,
Brian Schlorff '61 TR-4 '64 TR-4 '72 TR-6 '79 Spit
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