Yes indeed. As we past the secret spot more then once too.
It was great to see old friends (Larry, Biff, Kevin, ED, Alan) and even
better to finally meet people I have been emailing for quite a while.
(Allen, Chuck, Mike) The meet was fair, I too bought some new or
rechromed bugeye front bumper over riders, a real nice Amco chrome
luggage rack, cool reprint of a BMC service dealers accessories book,
and my best find of the day.
My early Christmas present from Chuck!!!
Chuck thank you so much. Talk about a cool, rare, and unique item.
Now I never met Chuck, he is a big guy, and hard to miss and he showed
me this item and I asked to buy it. He said Merry Christmas. What a guy.
Many thanks again.
And so we have something to talk about, I lost all brakes on the A40 on
the way to lunch. It's a good thing I was behind Kevin's van incase I
hit someone, it was a buddy. At lunch, Reg found a leaky brake light
switch, we tighten it up and had brakes again. The pedal was hard when
we left the eatery so I thought it was fixed.
WRONG!
Somewhere on the Surekill expressway I hit the brakes only to have the
OH SH*T feeling when the pedal hit the metal. Vigorous pumping did
nothing so I pulled to the shoulder to fix it. Now we had 3 men and my
daughter in this little car along with 4 wire wheels, a luggage rack,
and each of our treasures from the meet. On the shoulder of I 76 west of
center city Philly with no brakes.
No brake fluid but 1/2 a resevoir. What could it be, no leaks and no
pedal.
After some head butting we decide to suck fluid from the clutch and put
it in the brake master. Well It may work on paper but not the side of
the road.
WE needed brake fluid. All I had was a qt of oil in the boot so it had
to work or we were getting towed. Topped up the master with 20/50,
pumped up the pedal and off we drove with a good brake pedal. Now what
damage will this do?
20/50 on top of silicone brake fluid. We made it to Lakehurst when
something else went clunk, tick, tick, tick. My first instict told me my
home ground Morris Minor axle chipped a tooth. Well at least we had
brakes and the car was still moving, the tick tick eventually went away
so I figured the tooth lodged in the diff or something. Get home, relax
from one hell of a drive home for a bit and go out to the garage and see
if oil and silicone fluid mix.
Thanks for those small film cans Kevin, the make great visual aids while
seeing if mixed oil and brake flid separate. They did, oil floats on
top.
I sucked off the motor oil, topped it up with silicone, bleed the master
and had good hard brakes again.
Now for the rear end.... Yank the axle, it looks perfect. Replace with
stock A40 axle, drive around a bit, all seems fine.
Did I chip a tooth in the diff? I have no idea. It was in the rear end
somewhere and got quicker with speed then it went away as fast as it
arrived.
Her car is ready for school in the morning. If the rear blows, OK fine,
I have diffs.
Anybody have any ideas why a rear sounds like a chipped tooth then stops
making that sound?
All in all I had a very interesting day. Great people, minor LBC
problems, but all ended well.
--
Frank Clarici
Toms River, NJ
Down to only 3 Sprites, 1 Midget and an A40 Farina
http://www.exit109.com/~spritenut
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