Rock,
Fully agree with your thoughts on safety, when I was learning to drive in
the early sixties, my dad insisted that I never believe the other guy's
signals until we saw him commit to the turn, etc. I still don't believe
their signals, and it's saved me several times. But I must take exception to
your comments on TC hand brakes. I presently have a leaking right front
cylinder (which I'll fix this winter), and have been forced to use the
handbrake a few times. Mine has great stopping power, and can be feathered
to allow variable braking because the thumb button must be pressed to set
the brake (most modern brakes set automatically, and require the button to
be pressed to release). In short, the hand brake was designed to be a viable
alternative to the hydraulics, and it works well.
Cheers,
Nigel
'46 TC (#0710)
'73 Triumph Trident 750
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rocky Frisco [SMTP:rock@rocky-frisco.com]
> Sent: November 3, 1999 10:35 PM
> To: mgs@autox.team.net
> Cc: mg-t@autox.team.net
> Subject: More Brake Stuff
>
> Long rambly discourse on safety and such; feel free to ignore.
>
> When I was first out of High School, 1956, 18 years old, I bought a 1949
> MG-TC for $1100. It was beautiful. Within the first month it damned near
> killed me. I was tooling down the hill west of Columbia Ave. on 15th
> Street in Tulsa in the afternoon traffic, hit the brakes and they went
> to the floor with no resistance at all except the return spring. I tried
> the hand brake, which was typical of the T-Series I've worked on in that
> it didn't do much. Anybody who has ever experienced catastrophic brake
> failure knows that it feels like the car *speeds up* instead of slowing
> when you hit the floor with the pedal.
>
> I'm sure it's just psychological, because one expects to feel
> deceleration and doesn't, but it's a really frightening thing when it
> happens. I saved my neck and the car by scraping the right-hand tires on
> the curb until the car stopped. Luckily nobody was close to the curb, so
> there was actually room for the MG between the right-hand lane cars and
> the curb, but it was *very* close. That *really* scared me.
>
> It turned out the seals in the wheel cylinders had little daisy-shaped
> metal pieces to help keep the rubber firm. One of the tiny, flimsy
> little "petals" had broken off and the seal had totally quit sealing,
> causing the entire brake system to fail. I dismantled the entire system
> and replaced all of these deadly little daisies with proper modern seals
> & never had any more trouble. That taught me something.
>
> I never take for granted that mechanical things are just always going to
> work. When I'm in a potentially dangerous situation, I like to tap the
> brakes lightly to make sure they are responding and I always try to
> avoid panic stops except in competition. Murphy was right when he added
> that things usually will go wrong at the worst possible time. This is
> logical: maximum stress on a system that's approaching failure will
> cause it to fail right then. It makes me wince when some lady speeds
> right up to the stop sign and stands on the brake at the last possible
> minute, with a car full of kids and groceries, never even considering
> that the brakes might fail.
>
> I have had three very good friends killed and others injured because
> they were out having a good time and conversation with friends while
> driving home from a gig and just took for granted that nobody would fly
> through a red traffic light at 80 mph through a blind intersection. Four
> separate occasions of this over the years have left distrust of other
> drivers engraved on my attitudes. I don't whiz through intersections
> unless I can see they are clear and nobody is approaching in an
> intersecting trajectory, or completely blocked by stopped traffic.
>
> The one that nailed the Mini a year ago suckered me; she almost stopped,
> gave every indication she was stopping, then accelerated right into me.
>
> -Rock, who got a killed Mini and 70% hearing damage in right ear from
> that one.
> --
> Rocky, JJ Cale Band & Pratchett Books: http://www.rocky-frisco.com
> Rocky's Mini Cooper Page: http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/6437/
> Mini Books: http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/6437/rockboox.html
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