should i fix my brakes, or just make my horn louder? hmm...

[DnCrs13]

This is Wisconsin, we seem to be in our own little world up here. Must be all the happy cows.

[spl310]

Mmmm... Cheese curds.... Send some soon!

[DnCrs13]

Its not the same to ship them. They wouldn't be squeaky by the time they got to you. You are just gonna have to come up here and get some. Bring your Roadster and the Dairyland guys would be happy to show you the best beer and cheese curds you will ever taste!

[spl310]

I only half believe you. Best cheese curds, no doubt. Best beer, I don't think so. No offense, I am half German and have had beer in the Fatherland. Germans take beer seriously!

[Tomakze]

Anything to improve pedal feel makes me happy! I called Sergio on the phone today, very nice guy. looks like i will be getting the brake brace and a couple throttle dogbones from him. thanks for the recommendation!

I have experienced first hand that roadsters dont do well in the snow... especially with bad brakes that grab on one side more than the other... has a tendency to make you spin unexpectedly! Plus my BFG G-Force Super Sport A/S (all season my ass) tires are terrible in the snow. I should have just bought the G-Force KDW like i had originally planned. but, like an idiot, i got all excited about the possibility of driving my datto in crappy weather. the paint is junk, along with the body, so im not afraid of getting her dirty. she is a driver, and i WILL drive her, given any opportunity.

anyhow, the project begins after work today. on the docket: Adjust the steering gearbox to remove play, rebuild front brakes, diagnose strange sound from rear brakes, install brake master cylinder brake line adapters (SAE to metric), and change the oil (summer time, so 20w50 castrol GTX).

wish me luck!

-Tom

P.S. mhmmm, cheese curds...

[DnCrs13]

Good luck!

I should have clarified....American beer.

The germans make some damn good beer.

[Tomakze]

I have pictures of todays events, but photobucket is being a pain. i dont think it likes my linux computer.... perhaps tomorrow i will upload them using my PC.

I managed to rebuild the drivers side caliper today, the passenger side will be done tomorrow. unfortunately, it appears time and water have gotten the best of my poor brakes. i honed the crap out of them, and they are still pitted all to hell. (dont worry, i didnt go to far, the seals still fit very tightly.) i pulled the pistons out (air chuck makes it a breeze! "POP!" 2 seconds of work. thanks for the suggestion!) and when i did, i discovered what looked like mud in the cylinder. tons of rust, and very hard worn out seals. i am blown away the car stopped at all, let alone as well as it did! and to make matters worse, this is the "good" side. the passenger side pukes fluid and only barely works. i imagine that side will be quite the spectacle. i even pulled apart the parts car (hoping and praying the whole time...) only to find that they were seized. i muscled them apart and found grooves of rust, with similar quantities of mud...

looks like its time to start saving and get either a volvo or 300zx conversion. unless someone has some super awesome calipers they would like to give up for super cheap!!! im hoping after my ghetto rebuild my brakes will at least be better than what they are now. perhaps good enough to get me by for a while. i dont imagine they would get worse, and they worked well enough to compete with most any car on the road. i could lock them up if i wanted too.

i did get to adjust the steering box, and wow, what a difference. the nut did not go far, but tightened the steering quite a bit. time for an alignment! (tax return money! before it eats my new tires...)

so, i will try to update again tomorrow... thanks for reading my rant. any advise is appreciated.

-Tom

P.S. Guinness Harp is great beer. discovered it the other day! (and i dont care for Guinness very much)

[Skyman]

I have a set I could give you. Unsure of the condition as they came off a non-running car. I'm just over here in Utah.

Kyle

[Tomakze]

Kyle, as long as they aren't full of rust, id be willing to give you a fair price. let me know what you feel is appropriate. Thanks!

as far as the aftermath, here are the pictures i took during the process. sorry for the poor quality, all i had was my cell phone.


here you can see it all put back together, and it shows my new suspension i put together during my last project. the paint on the caliper didnt fare well... i guess that is what happens when you use the spray on type. oh well, it was an experiment.


I hate rust... and this is the "good" side...


In the bucket, you can see the fluid that came out of the caliper. i had bleed the brakes a few months back and we ran new fluid through until it ran clear... but obviously there was still PLENTY of rust buried in the caliper itself...

so there you have it. i will rebuild the other side today after work. i will try to take more pictures.

[DnCrs13]

How hard is it to pop out the pistons without the air? I don't have an air compressor in my house. I do have a can of airbrush propellant. How much psi would you think it would take? I have found very little rust on my car thus far, I am hoping this wont be an issue.

[Skyman]

Kyle, as long as they aren't full of rust, id be willing to give you a fair price. let me know what you feel is appropriate. Thanks!

I'll look at them this weekend. The price is free.

Kyle

[notoptoy]

How hard is it to pop out the pistons without the air? I don't have an air compressor in my house. I do have a can of airbrush propellant. How much psi would you think it would take? I have found very little rust on my car thus far, I am hoping this wont be an issue.

Depends on how mucked up they are. 10Psi may do it, but on the last one I did it took around 40PSI and when it popped - it was with some major force. Remember to keep any body part that you want out of the range of projectiles! Put a cloth/towel to catch the piston and prevent damage. You might be able to run it by your local service station - with the right pressure it takes about 2 seconds. If everything is in decent shape, your can of propellent may do it just fine -just use a cloth.

[DnCrs13]

Didn't even think of the service station, that is brilliant! I will try the propellant first and go from there. Plenty of towels on hand! Thanks!

[Tomakze]

well, the deed is done. and i am TIRED! so tired, i couldn't post anything last night. my apologies.

I finished the brake rebuild, after a lot of frustrating work. i fought stripped brake lines, then leaky brake lines, a seized caliper, and finally we had trouble bleeding the brakes. I ran a marathon yesterday!

I also discovered the "mysterious noise" coming from the rear. I have NO idea how this wasn't loud! i could barely hear this:





and to give you an idea of the condition of my calipers... this is AFTER honing. they all looked about the same. (this is the seized one though)



so, in conclusion, Kyle: if your calipers are good, i would be eternally grateful to you! that would make me so happy! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

despite all of this, the car stops remarkably well now. and i do not seem to be puking brake fluid anymore. I am not sure how this is possible considering the horrible state of my current parts... but i will take it. we tested the brakes after we finished, and i tried to lock them up. my friend had only a lap belt on and nearly kissed the dash despite my warning him i was going to push as hard as i could. it managed to lock up my sticky and wide tires! we were shocked at the power the brakes had. the only problem is the pedal doesn't have good pressure until it is very close to the floor. this may be the sorry state the rears are in, but i am not sure. we bleed the system very thoroughly, so i doubt it is that. i may be wrong. or, hell maybe it is the crappy calipers! to much is wrong to know.

i also could not install the adapters i bought for the master cylinder. it would not fit because the male end has the wrong shape. someone told me the threads are wrong in the cylinder for my brake lines, but i am not sure that is right. the stock lines thread all the way in by hand, and do not strip. maybe the adapter is not necessary for my set up? i am still not sure about the brake bias being wrong either, because even if it was, i would think the stock proportioning valve should fix that... or would it? (supposedly the B210 master cylinder puts too much pressure to the rear... any thoughts?)

[notoptoy]

Those rears are quite the mess, I hope you replaced the pads. I'm guessing at the least you should have the rear drums turned, but measure to make sure they are salvagable as well. Definitely go for better/new calipers, you are riding on borrowed time! I think you have put a band-aid on for now, and while they indeed must be better than what you had, this is not safe - you wouldn't want all that hard work to get crumpled in an accident! Did you clean/hone the rear wheel cylinders as well?

Great work nonetheless, and you have got to feel good about getting in there and sorting it all out - Congratulations!
Tom