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Because of the seller's disclosure prior to purchase, I already knew that the brakes were shot. There's a leak in the hydraulic system, which isn't uncommon for cars that aren't driven much. When I asked the seller what kind of fluids he uses in the master cylinders, he told me Castrol Girling (DOT 4, OEM specification) for the clutch and DOT 3 for the brakes. I suspect that the use of DOT 3 (standard American fluid) is the culprit, unless replacement rubber parts in the master and slave cylinders are now being manufactured in something other than natural rubber. I suspect that if the clutch parts still require DOT 4, then so does the braking system.
Since silicone (DOT 5) brake fluid can be substituted and I plan on repainting this beast one fine day (DOT 4 has a notorious reputation for eating paint), I've decided to go with the newer fluid. Since DOT 5 does not absorb moisture, chances are good that my replacement seals will last a lot longer, too.
The first order of business was loosening the lugs on all four wheels, then jacking up the car to place on jack stands, where it shall remain for the next week or two at least.
I have been advised to flush the braking system out with denatured alcohol first, by going through the same procedure as I would in bleeding the brake system. This will flush out the old, incompatible fluid entirely. Once the brake lines have been flushed out with the alcohol, I'm going to open all the bleed valves and force air through the master cylinder and on through the brake lines via compressed air or a jig that I'll rig up with my electric leaf blower.
I've ordered new wheel cylinders for the rear; at $18 apiece I'd be a fool not to. I've also ordered a rebuild kit for the master cylinder and the front caliper pistons. I seem to recall having rebuilt the brakes before in my first Triumph back in 1976 when I was but a lad of 16. If I was smart enough to figure it out then, I can figure it out now.
Then again, I was working on a 9-year old California Spitfire Mk3. Now, it's an England/Chicago 33 year old Spitfire Mk3 and when I removed those wheels, it wasn't very pretty.
I found spider webs and nests under the hub caps, and on the brake assemblies. It was difficult to even make out where the nuts and bolts were and from the light surface rust on the front rotors, it appears as though these brakes have not been used in a long time. I sprayed the caliper bolts and drum cover retention screws with some WD40 in anticipation of removing them in a few days.
The pads on the front look pretty good with lots of wear left. However, after taking a gander at those calipers, I'm beginning to reconsider buying a remanufactured set instead of trying to wrestle with the original ones. We'll see when I take them off. I'm probably also going to buy a new set of brake hoses all the way around. I think my life is easily worth the extra $64. At least, it is to me. I might spring for some of those new-fangled cross-drilled rotors as well (note: I've since decided to order all new brake pads and shoes and keep the original rotor and calipers for now. However, I've ordered new pistons for the caliper).
When I reached under the car to place the jack stands under the frame, I discovered how the inspector noted the replacement rocker panels. There are strips of cut metal folded under the inside edges underneath the car. I'm no professional, but it looks kind of strange to me. My fear is that these galvanized rockers were fashioned by hand and are merely covering over the original, rotting panels. One thing is for certain - from the outside of the car, it looks very straight and very nice. I'll ask the previous owner about them. We're on very good terms and I believe he will tell it to me straight. I'm hoping that I'm wrong, because otherwise, I'll probably need to remove the panels and sills he installed and start over with all-new OEM replacements. One thing I know for certain: I'm going to take my time, spend what I have to, and do things right the first time. No shortcuts.
Update: The previous owner fashioned the rocker panels himself while working for GM in the sheetmetal division. Unfortunately, they are applied over the rotted OEM panels and will have to be removed later. I'm going to try and salvage them if at all possible, though, because they ARE galvanized (meaning they won't rust) and a perfect fit on the car. You'd never know from the outside that the are not OEM panels.
1/7/00 -- My new set of gently used wire wheels that I purchased form eBay arrived today! The four main wheels and hubs seem to be in fairly good shape. The wheels themselves look beautiful; their splines look decent to me. They look like they'll hold up fine for many miles so long as I keep them greased. We'll find out soon enough. I'm having my tires mounted to them on Monday. The spare doesn't look as good as the primary four wheels . While the splines are still present, they don't inspire much confidence. I'd be nervous if I had to rely on this wheel for a spare. I'll probably try to pick up another or see about getting this one restored (I've since decided to scrap the spare wheel and find another more suitable candidate).
I don't know why, but after getting used to seeing the parts and working with them a little bit, I'm not nearly as intimidated by the appearance of the calipers and other suspension components today... I'm actually feeling quite optimistic. I took a small stiff-wire brush with a wood handle (almost looks like a big toothbrush) and took off a lot of the surface gunk that's been accumulating on the suspension for the last 33 years. I also brushed off some loose undercoating on the lower wishbone that was giving that part a real ragged, ghost-ship appearance. I know that I'm bound to find something I don't like under the coating (like a rust hole) at some point, but so far, I've been pleasantly surprised.
Another reason for my optimism today concerns the steering rack. It appears to be very tight, smooth, quiet and in very good overall condition. This weekend, I'm going to flush the brake lines, grease all the wheel bearings, steering unit and whatever else requires it. I've got a fairly decent oil leak coming from somewhere. I'll try to at least isolate where THAT'S coming from as well (then again, maybe not yet). I'm happy to see that the differential case is dry also, with no leakage. I'll top up both the gearbox and rear end while I'm at it.
I was pleased to find that most of the suspension, while still crusty, appears to be in good, serviceable shape. I received some great advice about my rusty rotors on the Triumph e-mail list and more great advice about flushing my brake system with denatured alcohol in preparation of my switch to DOT 5 fluid. I ordered a new set of brake hoses for the entire vehicle today from Spitbits and gave myself a good kick in the rear for not taking off the rear drum covers to see what kind of shape the shoes are in. This is obviously an excellent time to replace the rear shoes andfront pads on the brakes (update: I ordered all new pads and shoes anyway).
I've decided to make a late "New Years' Resolution". I'm not going to order any parts from anywhere until I ascertain exactly what I need for the current project so I can buy everything all at once and save some shipping charges.
I'm also pondering the thought of replacing the shocks and cleaning up the springs while I've got the wheels off. This would seem to be the perfect time to really clean up the suspension while I've got the car on jack stands anyway... I installed a set of Konis on my original Spitfire (and recall being quite happy with them) and believe I will do the same with this one. It may be longer than I thought before I'm ready to take this car for its first drive since I've acquired it.
1/8/00 -- My mom would have turned 80 today. Happy birthday, Mom. In case you wonder why I place the warning about seatbelts at the bottom of my pages, my mother lost her life six years ago and might have survived had she been wearing hers. I miss her greatly.
Today, I set off to flush the remaining fluid from my brake system with denatured alcohol. I bought a gallon tin of the stuff at Home Depot for about $8. I also bought a $100 air compressor that I may or may not keep. It's portable, AC powered -- and delivers good pressure -- but not for very long. I don't have that much space in the garage to store one of those big suckers with the air tank attached, but might change my mind about that. As part of the rebuild, I'm going to need the compressor to to coax the piston out of the calipers that I removed after flushing the brakes and I hope this little box I bought does the job.
I received another GREAT suggestion from a very helpful list member for forcing the pistons out, if the compressed air doesn't do the trick (he also warned me to keep my fingers out of the way of the pistons when using compressed air, lest I lose a fingertip). John C. Smith from Cincinnatti, Ohio wrote:
"If they are stuck in place, there is another technique that always works, but requires a little more cleanup afterwards. You take a greasegun, unscrew the tip off the greasegun, thread the greasegun into the caliper where the line goes in, and then pump until the grease fills up the caliper and pushes the pistons out. I learned all of this from the Rolls Royce technician that trained me to work on British cars. The man that taught him was from Great Britain, and had raced with Sterling Moss in the 50s. The calipers were not painted from the factory, but I usually paint them black, as it helps control corrosion, and they look better."
What an outstanding and helpful idea! Thanks, John! I think however, that I've decided to paint mine silver.
I had a heck of a time getting the rear wheel bleeder nuts loose and ended up having to take a set of needle-nose vice grips to them, destroying the already worn nut hex heads. They are in a terribly tight spot that makes working on them or with them extremely inconvenient. It appears quite apparent to me that these brakes have not been bled in some time. At least not the rear drums. Both bleeder valves will have to be replaced. I spent about an hour trying to remove them both, without snapping it off or stripping the threads.
I applied a liberal amount of WD-40 (the best purchase I've made so far, right along with the jack stands). I tried lightly tapping the fittings with a hammer to break the threads loose and kept working on those dang bleeder nipples with my vice grips. Finally, after much effort and patience, I was rewarded with getting them loose. I removed them both and gave the threads a shot of WD-40 before refitting temporarily.
TIP: At the time, I didn't realize that these screws are part of the wheel cylinders which I'm replacing anyway. I would have been better off simply removing the brake hose and not bothering trying to work those frozen bleed screws loose.
I used most of the gallon of alcohol, pouring about 2/3's into the Master Cylinder (MC), bleeding each valve from the farthest to closest to the MC (in my case, having a RHD car, that was the left front wheel and working around the car counter-clockwise). I then opened each bleeder valve in the same counter-clockwise fashion and blasted warm air from my electric leaf blower through a funnel attachment into the MC. Forcing the leaf blower to blow into such a small opening caused it to overheat ever so slightly, hence the warming of the air. A good amount of alcohol shot out of each bleeder valve. I kept the air blowing through each line for about a minute after seeing the last drip fall out of each bleeder valve. It shoud be dry as a bone in there now... It will be another week before I can refill the cylinder with DOT 5 silicone fluid, so I feel confident that if there's any residual moisture in the lines remaining, it should be totally dry by then.
Then, I set out to remove the calipers from their mounts so I can finish cleaning them up in preparation of the rebuild.
Tip: Loosen the rubber brake line that's attached to the caliper before removing the caliper mounting bolts. Trying to awkwardly remove the hose after you remove the caliper is a real pain. I'm not saying that it can't be done, but I learned this lesson the hard way... The outside seal that I could see on the caliper piston was definitely toast. Tattered and ragged, it's no WONDER these brakes didn't work. You can even see the spider's nest above the left piston. I carefully removed the cotter pins and pad retaining pins from the caliper and removed the pads. They appear to be in good enough condition so I'll leave them in. I have decided to definitely replace the rubber brake hoses though, even though they appear to be in fairly good shape. I've also decided to replace the shocks in the front and rear with a new set of Koni's while I've got the 
wheels off. I'll probably get the springs sand blasted and repaint them as well.
Just look at the outer seal of that caliper piston! I was flabbergasted to look at that! Note also in the photo above, the missing seal on the left side!
Keith Burns from San Andreas California gave me another great tip about the springs, as well as some other sage advice:
"Something that is never noted in the manuals is that the springs have a correct orientation. Modern struts have indentations to put the spring exactly where it needs to be, but on the spit there is no such thing so when you compress the spings to put in the shocks (incredible pressure here I had a machine shop with a big press do it) make marks so that the springs stay the same in relation to the alignment top and bottom. Also while you are doing the brakes check the little pin that connects the brake peddle to the master cylinder (and the clutch pin while you are at it) as it is a 2 dollar part that wears and eventually wears the hole in the brake peddle bigger which really affects peddle travel because of the nature of leverage at work in that system."
My wife says that I should name my car "Mrs. Jones". God, I love that woman. What a sense of humor. And she's right. Me and Mrs. Jones... We've got a thing, going on... Ha ha. If you're younger than 35 or so, pick up the Billy Paul song of the same name from the mid-'70's and you'll understand the joke like the rest of us older guys..
1/9/00 -- I decided to try and use my new, "cheap" air compressor today to extricate the pistons from my calipers. I'm 3/4 of the way done. Unfortunately, I have a "stuck" piston that no amount of finessing seems to work with. I've tried to rotate it in the caliper shaft with my needle-nosed vice grips -- I figure that if I can rotate the piston in the shaft, I'll be able to wiggle it out like I did the second piston on the first caliper. So far, no luck. I removed the outer seal circlips, pried off the rotted rubber and sprayed the pistion liberally with WD-40. I'll try again later. Probably tomorrow. Bummer.
I found that I needed a good 120-130 psi of air pressure to "pop" the pistons. My compressor can only sustain about 40 psi, so what I ended up doing was shoving the plastic toy inflating attachment into the brake line, attached to the quick-fit connector that also came with the compressor. When the pressure built up to my compressor's max (about 135 psi) holding the caliper steady on one side with one hand, I jammed the quick-connect fitting onto its mate with the other, giving me momentary bursts of high pressure. I had to repeat this procedure half a dozen times or so with each caliper, but the piston DID pop -- like a bullet!
TIP: When using compressed air, make sure you insert a rag in between the pistons (to avoid damaging them) WEAR GOGGLES and keep your fingers out of there! Special thanks again to John C. Smith for preparing me for this task. I discovered the need for goggles on my own. When the first piston fired out of the cylinder, lots of misty debris shot out of the cylinder like a cannon!
As I was cleaning out one of the calipers, I was dumbfounded to find one of the pistons completely devoid of a seal and the circlip that should have been surrounding the piston. How could those items have simply fallen off? Or did somebody just do a terrible rebuild job previously? No wonder the brake system kept losing fluid!
I ended up freeing the stuck piston late in the afternoon, using the "grease pressure" method. My grease gun is rated at 1,200 PSI or something ridiculously high like that, so I figured that would do the trick -- though I wasn't relishing the thought of cleaning out all of that grease from the calipers later. Turns out it wasn't so bad, really.
Placing the free piston back in place on the opposite side of the caliper, I used a quick grip to hold the piston in place and attached the grease gun to the brake line opening. Believe it or not, I've never actually used a grease gun before so I wasn't sure if I loaded it properly. The instructions were rather ambiguous. My concerns were addressed soon enough when I saw the free piston pushing against the clamp. I attached a second clamp because the pressure was really building -- putting a strain on the quick grip clamp. A few easy strokes later, one of the clamps exploded into pieces from the stress. Oops. I bought
those for my wood working projects. So much for that idea! I quickly grabbed the only thing I had that was large enough and strong enough to hold the free moving piston in place. My father's old monkey wrench. Worked like a charm. The stuck piston began easing out, and once it was out far enough, it simply fell out.
Once that stuck piston was freed, removing the other one was easy. To blow out most of the grease, I blew compressed air through the brake line inlet. I wiped out the rest with a clean rag. The problem piston was fairly pitted and I've decided to replace them all with new ones rather than try to salvage them. This is one job I don't want to have to repeat for a LONG time.
Now I understand why the brake pad wear was so uneven on that wheel. My guess is, that this piston (the one on the right) has been frozen in place for quite some time. Another after effect of a seldom-driven car. Click here to jump to the caliper rebuild.
1/10/00 -- I dropped off my steel wheels and wire wheels at a local specialist today. They dismounted the nearly new Michelin radials from the steel rims and popped the tires with a new set of tubes onto my new wire wheels. If a tag I found on one of the hubs was any indication, the wheels and hubs were probably originally purchased together in 1993. The painted wheels don't appear any older than that, that's for sure. They have the original paint and are unusually clean. I picked up the wheels late in the afternoon. I can't wait to get them on.
I ended up ordering a complete front and rear brake kit today, along with a part I need for the generator. UPS dropped off my caliper and MC rebuild kits, along with the new rear wheel cylinders. While I'm waiting for the rest of the brake components to arrive next week, I'll rebuild the MC and fit the new wheel cylinders this weekend. At least, that's my plan...
Tonight, I was back out in the garage in my pajama bottoms with Mrs. Jones, trying to remove the Master Cylinder so I can get going on the rebuild. Ooh. Tougher than I thought! I ended up loosening the cable to the windshield wiper motor and unbolting it from the engine shelf and moving it aside so I can hopefully get to the bolts on the MC mount. Sheesh! There is a nasty coat of undercoating on the shelf which I tried (with some success) to scrape off, using the same wire brush that I used to clean off the brake components last week.
As I was taking off those ugly, old. black, greasy bolts and washers that held down the wiper motor, I decided to replace those (and any other bolts I remove) with new replacement bolts and washers whenever possible. That should be a good, inexpensive way to make small improvements all along the way. I gave a shot of WD40 to the brake line connection to the MC and the mounting bolts. I feel almost certain that due to the tight working space, I'm going to need my needle nosed vice grips again to remove the brake line lock down nut. I think I'm going to place two pennies on the flat spots of the connector, so I don't damage them with the grooved "fingers" of the vice grips.
Something tells me that when I finally get the MC off, the bore is going to be corroded and I'm going to have to replace it with a new one or have it re-sleeved, anyway.
1/11/00 -- It's midnight as I'm writing this. About an hour ago, I found myself back for a secret rendevous with "Mrs. Jones" in the garage. Ha ha. That's so funny. I think that name is gonna stick. The fact that my wife came up with it and jokingly thinks of my Spitfire as "the other woman" is a crack up. There could never be another woman. Not for me.
Anyway, I was determined to get that MC off the engine compartment shelf come hell or high water. I reasoned that it must not be all that difficult. After all, someone had to put it on! After realizing what a silly idea the penny thing was (if the space was too tight to begin with, how was I going to maneuver these makeshift "protectors" in place anyhow? Throwing caution to the wind, I clamped down on the brake line connector with my trusty needle-nosed vice grips and was able to get it loose on my second try. Once it broke loose, it was easy to unscrew the rest by hand. The top bracket bolt for the MC was a relative cinch. I just took a crescent wrench to that one and it popped loose pretty easily. The bottom bolt was going to be a problem though. Or was it?
Digging around my toolbox, the bottom of which melted into a sticky goo because I got careless with brake cleaner earlier (oops!), I found what I needed to do the job. An extension for my ratchet wrench with an angle adapter fit against the socket. I was able to manuever the socket over the bolt head after some effort, working down between the clutch MC and the brake MC. I wish I could have taken a digital photo for you, but maybe I can when reassembling.
TIP: Braking cleaning fluid (in the spray cans) is necessary to use, but nasty, toxic stuff. Use it outside or in a well ventilated area and have something underneath the wheel to catch it so you can properly dispose of it. You don't want this stuff sitting on your garage floor. It ruined the bottom of my plastic portable toolbox by leaching over the floor and melting the bottom of the case.
As it turned out, I really didn't need to unbolt the windscreen wiper motor at all, but I was still glad I did as I could more easily see the lower problem bolt. It didn't want to come out very easily, but out it came anyway. As soon as I have time, I'll clean up the exterior of the cylinder with a wire brush and maybe some of that mechanics hand soap I picked up today along with a Mityvac. I mean, if the hand cleaner works so well at breaking up the grease and gunk on my hands, why shouldn't it work just as well on aluminum? I'll let you know how it goes... I found the Mityvac locally for just $25. I tried one of those cheap one-way brake valve bleeder hoses the other day and took it back. It leaked all over the place. No thanks! I've heard too many positive things about the Mityvac to not invest in one.
1/11/00 -- Ah, the day before my 40th birthday and I'll be going "over the hill" with grease under my fingernails. Yechh. Late this morning, I had the urge to attack that Master Cylinder rebuild so I went to it. I tried cleaning the aluminum MC with hand cleaner and a tooth brush. It worked pretty well, but a straight wire brush worked a lot better. I was nervous about the abrasives in the hand cleaner accidentally entering the MC, so I was very careful. After wiping off the cylinder with a clean (well, pretty clean) rag, I brought it inside and opened up the rebuid kit. There were extensive instructions contained in the kit, but I had already prepped myself pretty good with the Bentley Spitfire factory service manual.
Here is an exploded view of the disassembled parts, courtesy of the documentation in the rebuild kit.
No.'s 18 (pushrod dust cover), 9 and 15 are the actual seals that are replaced with the kit. The latter two are located within the cylinder bore. No.7 is the piston/spring assembly which must be dismantled in order to get to the seals. By slightly raising the release clip (No. 10), the assembly comes apart very easily (more on that below).
The photo to the right shows the end of the MC where the pushrod comes out that connects to the brake pedal. There's a metal retainer in there called a pushrod stop, held in place by a circlip. The circlip is easily compressed with a set of needle nosed pliers (you can see mine at work directly below the pushrod shaft in the photo) or whatever you prefer to use for circlip removal. The pushrod stop pops right off when the clip is removed as shown in the next picture. Once the pushrod is removed with the pushrod stop and circlip, you must remove the piston. There are at least two ways to do this: Tap the edge of the cylinder opening against a hard surface until the piston works itself out far enough to pull out the rest of the way with your fingers, or blow some low pressure compressed air through the fluid exit line. The first method worked fine for me. About a half-dozen raps on my wife's kitchen island (with a newspaper spread out, of course) did the trick.
Next came the most challenging part for me, but after a few moments I finally understood what my Bentley manual was referring to when it said to "lift the locating clip on the spring retainer". Huh?
Well, to save you a few seconds of figuring that little pearl of wisdom out, here's a magnified view of the locating clip. It's located right near the end of the plunger. Use a very small flat blade screwdriver, penknife or other small, flat, narrow tool to wedge under the front edge of clip and very slowly and gently lift it up slightly, until it clears the lip of the plunger.
Here's what the plunger looks like once it's free of the spring assembly. The rubber seal is towards the right side of it. The retaining clip that you lifted butts up against the lip towards the left side.
Once you have lifted this one little clip and have taken apart the piston/spring assembly, you can easily get to the seals. There are only two small rubber seals to replace, plus the dust cover that slips over the end of the pushrod and covers the circlip and push rod stop on the outside of the cylinder shaft. Just make sure you orient the seals correctly, lubricate with the red grease that's provided, reassemble and press the retaining clip back down into place.
With the new seals in place and the piston/spring assembly back together, it's time to put everything back together. The instruction manual says to lubricate the cylinder shaft with clean brake fluid before inserting the seals, but since my DOT 5 hasn't arrived yet, that option was unavailable to me. I sure didn't want to introduce any Castrol Girling into the bore, even in minute traces, since I've made a considerable effort to switch to DOT 5 silicone. Instead, I smeared a very small amount of the supplied red grease over the outside lip of new rubber seals (reasoning that this must be perfectly acceptable otherwise they wouldn't supply the grease to fit the seals to begin with), re-attached the plunger stop and new circlip that came with the kit and gently pushed the plunger (via the pushrod) into the bore. I was rewarded with a smooth and easy glide back out via the piston spring.
For a final cleaning, I took a wire wheel on my hand held drill to the exterior, keeping the reservoir upside down (to prevent any debris from falling into it) and my index finger over the brake line outlet for the same reasons. I finished up with a bit of WD-40 and steel wool (again, taking care not to contaminate the openings). When I finished wiping the bright and shiny MC off, I blew some compressed air into the reservoir (just to be on the safe side), put some of that red grease on the end of a Q-tip and used it to thoroughly clean the brake line outlet. Any loose dirt stuck to the grease and the brake line threaded in real nice. I attached the top bolt of the mounting bracket through the corresponding hole on the MC and tightened it up by hand. Then, my biggest challenge of the day...
I couldn't get the lower bolt to start threading to save my life. I tried switching bolts. No luck. I tried threading the bolt through from the opposite side after cleaning the bolt threads with WD-40. It went through like a charm. But when I tried once again to thread the bolt through from the proper side, no luck. After a good 20 minutes and praying that the threads weren't stripped on the inside, I gave up for a moment. No matter how hard I willed everything to be okay, even applying as much pressure as I could against the bolt while trying to get the threads started, I could see that there was no way that bolt was going in. Since the bracket is angled slightly, I tried reorienting the tilt of the bolt. No good.
Finally, I removed the top bolt and brake line again, took out the cotter pin holding the pushrod to the brake pedal and decided to try and thread the bolt without the MC getting in my way. The location of the bolt (as mentioned earlier during the removal) makes it extremely hard to get to with the MC in position.
The bolt threaded in with no effort! What the $%?!
As it turns out, the mounting bracket where that lower bolt is located had been bent ever so slightly inward -- angled towards the engine. Aha! I had tried to shift the angle of the bolt up and down -- but not side to side. Success! I remounted the MC to the bracket, re-installed the large outer dust boot, attached the pushrod to the brake pedal, reconnected the brake line and drove the mounting bolts home with the ratchet wrench for the lower bolt and a regular open ended wrench for the top bolt.
Now all that's left for me to bleed the system is to install the new rear wheel brake cylinders and reinstall the new pistons in the calipers (they won't arrive until mid next week). Oh well, more time for the brake lines to dry out if the blast of warm air didn't do the trick the other day. I can't wait to finish with the brakes so I can mount my new wire wheels and actually drive this car!
TIP: It's easier to begin threading the bottom mounting bolt if you insert the bolt in the lower MC mounting hole before you lower the MC back into position against the mounting bracket. Using both hands, "cradle" the bolt between your fingertips to start it in the threads. Then drive it home with a ratchet with an extension and angle adapter. If someone knows an easier/better way, please advise. Be forewarned: Tightening and loosening the lower bracket bolt takes a bit of time and patience. At least, it did for me. Make sure you've still got lock washers on there before you tighten things down.
TIP: If your MC is in good shape, but you simply want to change the rubber as cheap insurance in preparation for the switch to DOT 5 silicone fluid; once the lines have been flushed out with denatured alcohol and blown dry with compressed air, you might find it a lot easier to perform the rebuild with the MC still attached to its mounting bracket. So long as there is no remaining brake fluid to spill out (which there wouldn't be if you purged and dried the system), and you're reasonably confident that the cylinder bore doesn't need honing (unlikely if the MC hasn't been leaking up to this point), you can save a lot of time by leaving the MC mounted in position and simply detach the pedal linkage and outer dust boot. In my case, I needed to check the cylinder bore carefully, since the car arrived with non-functioning brakes and has been driven very little over the last several years (therefore, I had no way to evaluate its condition without taking it fully apart). But in most cases, I would suspect that unbolting the MC from its mounting bracket is unecessary when performing a re-build if the MC was working properly to begin with and the cylinder has since been purged of all fluids.
7/10/01 - Update: Around June 6, 2001 (or nearly a year and a half after my rebuild), I noticed a small leak from the MC that was working its way down the brake pedal and onto my floor mat. Uh-oh. The one thing that I neglected to do in my rebuild was to hone the bore in the MC -- something that I really should have done considering the age of the car and the fact that it had been without operative brakes in what appeared to be several years.
I opted to have the bore re-sleeved, rather than try to hone it out myself, not knowing the internal condition and realizing that honing is only going to make the bore larger. I've heard good things about Apple Hydraulics and when I called them they promised a seven day turnaround, which became over a month. I took that opportunity to remove the MC bracket, bead blast it and re-paint it in semi-gloss black. I also replaced the badly corroded bracket bolts. Note the difference in appearance between the re-sleeved brake MC (left) and the clutch MC next to it (far right). Apple did a great job bead blasting it, though the cap is now dull and etched looking instead of polished, which I don't much care for. I suppose it can be buffed out again.
I was surprised to read in notes from Apple that they will not guarantee their work for MCs that use silicone fluid. Their reasons for disliking silicone DOT 5 were rather vague and ambiguous. They couldn't pin down whether they believe that DOT 5 overly swells the rubber seals or doesn't swell them enough. Because of their lack of hard facts or data to support their position, I am committed to the continued use of DOT 5 on this car. A decision I know I won't regret after the car has been repainted.
1/13/00 - Last night, I tried to remove the rear brake drums so I can remove and replace the old wheel cylinders and brake shoes with new ones. My brake hoses arrived from one supplier and my pedal pads, hub nuts and DOT 5 fluid from another. Unfortunately, I ran into a snag in getting the brake drums off. I did everything right: I loosened the brake adjuster on the lower part of the wheel all the way counter-clockwise; I made sure the handbrake was off and removed the screws holding the drum in place. I tried prying the cover off, but it held fast and seemed as though it was attached by springs to the backing plate or something. I tried for a good hour and a half before calling it a night. Once again, I summoned assistance from my new friends on the Spitfire mailing list and the consensus seems to be to give the drum several good whacks with a hammer to loosen things up and keep prying at that drum. Yesterday, I picked up a box of 100 pair of surgical gloves at Costco for $8 on the advice of a helpful list member. Great idea. I used them last night and they worked great. Highly recommended. No more chemical absorbtion on my skin and gunk under my fingernails.
After looking at all the cruddy parts I'd really love to clean up and re-paint on my Spitfire, I decided that in the long run. I'd rather have the convenience of having my own bead blaster setup rather than having to haul the parts over to a sandblasting contractor, pay them for each piece, etc. I ended up spending a total of less than $320 for a benchtop blast cabinet with light and vacuum port for my shop vac, a 2HP, 115 PSI compressor with an output that matches the 5 CFM and 80 PSI requirements of the cabinet ($199) and 50 lbs of glass bead media ($33). The cabinet and compressor are both made by Central Pnuematic. I hope they'll be okay. The price was sure right. I was able to get a better look at the blasting cabinet thanks to someone selling them new on eBay for $20 more than I paid (no thanks on your auction, sir, but thanks for the pictures!) I know that this single tool will really pay for itself in the long run. Plus, it gave me the excuse I needed to get a decent air compressor. Sure, I know that a 5 HP compressor is best in case I wanted to do other kinds of external sandblasting someday, but those compressors are way too pricey, bulky and beyond my humble requirements. Again, I have the list members to thank for pointing me in the right direction. My bench is right next to my table saw and shop vac. The blasting cabinet has a shop vac port.
I'm already lining up parts to blast clean and re-paint. My front calipers, rear drums, front shock springs, spare wire wheel, the five original steel rims and other suspension parts. I'm sure I'll find all sorts of goodies to blast clean -- but my brake MC won't be one of them -- for now. I'll probably end up bead blasting many more parts than I'm currently anticipating.
As usual, the sage advice of the Spitfire list members helped me get my brake drums off so I could get at the wheel cylinders and shoes for replacement. I actually enjoyed beating the hell out of those cast iron drums with my standard hammer. Getting the adjuster to function on the left rear wheel was an exercise in futility. NOTHING would budge it. I'm definitely going to need a replacement since I really banged it up trying to work it loose.
Fortunately, I was able to get the drum off, anyway, with a lot less trouble than the one on the right rear, where the adjuster gave me no trouble, oddly enough..
Scale and rust fell off onto the garage floor and with a little coaxing, the drums came off just fine. I removed the shoe retention pins and springs from both drums and removed the shoes and wheel cylinders. Replacing the cylinders turned out to be pretty easy.
First, you have ro remove the fuel hose from the fuel line connection on the frame-welded mounting bracket, then disconnect the other end of the rubber fuel hose at the wheel cylinder. There was a rubber gasket protecting the wheel cylinder on the inside surface of the drum backing plate. I simply peeled it up and got it out of the way, leaving it hanging on the handbrake clevis connector. There were two opposing "U" clips, one on each side of the cylinder, overlapping each other, which hold the wheel cylinder fast against the backing plate. I pulled those off with my needle-nose pliers and the wheel cylinder slipped right out on the now-open drum side of the backing plate.
I installed the new wheel cylinders reversing the removal procedure and installed the new brake hoses. Everything on the right side of the vehicle went off without a hitch. The drums are still off the vehicle and will remain so until after I've installed the new brake shoes, which aren't due here until next week. Here's a serious mistake I made that I hope you will learn from. I was careless when bending the metal fuel line out of the way to remove
and replace the rubber brake hose on the left side of my car, without realizing that it was a very short line -- about 8" which goes into a 3-way union mounted above the rear axle frame. I knew that something was wrong when the line seemed suddenly "light". What I did was snap the line right at the top of the brake fitting adapter where it enters the union.
It took some time and patience to get a socket up there and remove the adaptor -- one ratchet click at a time. I'm not looking forward to fitting the replacement. Sigh. I know that this is a small setback, but it was very disappointing nonetheless. I put a rubber cap over the end of the break hose (at left in photo above) and sat another on top of the union to prevent any contamination to the brake line until I can secure a replacement fitting (above right and below). Looks like I'm going to need assistance from the list members once again. What an outstanding support group!
Here's the broken brake line -- and here's to hoping I've spared you from making the same mistake I did someday!
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But at least I got my wheel cylinders and new rubber brake hoses installed!
1/14/00 -- I heard from a list member today, Karl Theis, who salvaged the brake lines off a Mk2 Spitfire and has the piece I need. He's mailing it tomorrow, for free. Thanks, Karl! Two boxes arrived today with parts. One contained a new rubber bonnet seal, oilpan gasket and rubber trunk seal. The other contained my new caliper pistons, the correct "T" pedal pads and complete brake pads/shoe/spring/pin set. As soon as the replacement brake line arrives from Karl, I should have all the new components installed and the rebuild of my calipers complete. All that will be left then is to pour in the DOT 5, acqauint myself with the operation of the Mityvac brake bleeding device and let the good times roll!
As tempting as it is to rush things, I think I've decided to hold off on the final phase of the brakes until my new bead blaster setup arrives. I'd really like to finish blowing the accumulated crud off those calipers, then prime and paint them bright red. I'm going to blast and paint the rear drums the same color. I think that they'll make a nice accent to the wire wheels.
I brought my calipers down to my local garage to see if they could hone the bores for me. They declined -- afraid to split the assembley apart to get to the piston bores. I'd rather not attempt that feat, either, so I'm just going to take some very, very fine emory cloth, soak it in DOT 5 and gently go over the bores by hand. I think they're pretty clean as it is (the condition of the old pistons notwithstanding. Adding the new pistons and new seals should most definitely do the trick.
While I'm waiting for the bead blaster kit, I'm going to order a set of new two-eared chrome knock-offs like my original '67 Triumph Spitfire had, which will be more "correct" than the octagons which didn't become standard issue until '68 or '69 with the wire wheel option. I'm going to sell the chrome octagon knock-offs and wrench that I currently have on eBay, I think. I know I probably won't get much, but something is better than nothing. I'm going to bead-blast, repaint and sell the original steel wheels for the car, along with the chrome moon hubcaps while I'm at it.
This week, I'll be fitting the new brake shoes, removing, cleaning and re-installing the brake adjusters on the rear drums; filling all the grease fittings (as illustrated on the wallpaper, here), install new front brake hoses, replacing the broken brake pipe section and thoroughly inspecting the rest of the lines for corrosion. My car has a single line braking system, unlike later Spitfires. I can't afford to miss any details. Like how three of the four rear brake shoe springs were fitted incorrectly with the spring on the front, instead of the back side of the shoes where they belong.
1/18/00 -- Lubing the rear wheel bearings was easy (until grease exuded from the bearings), thanks to the grease zirks that the previous owner must have fitted. I also had no trouble greasing the steering rack, per specifications (five strokes only so as not to damage the rubber boots).
Finding the cap bolt so could lubricate the front swivel joints was tricky. They were covered with years of accumulated road dust. Working on this car is like an archaelogical dig sometimes. And nearly as rewarding -- at least for me. Fortunately, the fitting was not correct for my grease gun and for good reason -- you're supposed to lube the swivel joint with gear oil. Glad I didn't accidentally do the wrong thing! The picture shows the bolt that was hidden under the gunk. That wire brush has paid for itself many times over already!
1/19/00 -- I had a good, productive day today. I managed to remove both front struts and springs; remove, clean and replace the rear wheel adjusters, install the new donor brake line (shown above in actual size) from Karl Theis (thanks again, Karl!) and installed the rear brake shoes. I'm beat. It was a lot easier doing this stuff when I was 16. If I was younger, I'd have taken the rear shocks off today, too -- but I was too worn out to tussle with THOSE bolts. The other day, I bought a second ratchet set with long sockets. That made getting the second front shock assembly off a LOT easier.
One of my close friends loaned me his brake shoe installing/removal tool. WHAT A GREAT DEVICE! I don't think I could have installed the brake shoes anywhere NEAR as easily without them. At least, not without much greater effort and potential injury. Thanks, Bear!
Going on the helpful advice of another Triumph enthusiast, I decided to remove and clean the brake adjusters before installing the shoes. I'm glad I did. They were frozen in place, even with the two backplate mounting screws removed, so I grabbed the adjusters from the brake side of the plate with a pair of vice grips and twisted them slightly until they broke free. Both were in pretty bad shape. These are actually very easy to work with so don't be intimidated. Each brake adjust only has two removable parts -- the pressure pistons that move outward to press the brake shoes against the drum when you tighten the brake adjuster 1/4" bolt in the back. I did have a challenge however, in that each adjuster had one stuck piston.
I sprayed each of them down with brake cleaner and used a toothbrush to clean off the gunk a little better (the brake cleaner started disinigrating my rubber gloves in a hurry). I changed gloves two or three times during this process.
TIP: Always wear eye protection when dealing with powerful solvents. Especially if you're using a brush to further clean the parts you're working on!
After I had the adjusters cleaned off, I sprayed liberally with WD-40 and went about extricating the stuck pistons. It took some patience and effort, but eventually I got them out. Fortunately, you can place a screwdriver or 1/4" socket extension through the open side (where the other piston popped out easily) and press the stuck piston out. If that's too tough, place the adjuster in your bench vice, then tighten the adjuster screw on the adjuster all the way down until the piston is sticking out as far as it will go. Spray it with your favorite penetrating lubricant, unscrew the adjuster all the way, then use a hammer to tap the piston in as far as it will go. Spray inside the chamber again with lubricant, then tighten the adjuster all the way again. The piston should easily come out now.
Be sure to spray lubricant on the threads of the adjusting nut, also.
Before reassembling each adjuster by inserting their pistons, I sprayed white lithium grease into the chambers, so the pistons won't get stuck again. I wiped away any excess grease, unscrewed the adjusters all the way, placed the pistons in their chambers and re-installed the adjuster assemblies onto the rear brake drum mounting plates. They tighten and loosen effortlessly now. I'm really glad I took this extra step. Not only did I save $60 to replace them with new adjusters, I learned a new skill and enjoyed doing it.
The most satisfying thing I'm coming away with is the knowledge that many of the things that I was intimidated by are turning out to be much easier to grasp than I had initially feared.
I really wish now that I would have taken some photos of the adjusters when they were removed for you, to give you a good, close-up look of them disassembled. But I was greasy and sort of anxious to simply get it done. The photos to the left (above) and below (right) shows the adjuster refitted though. It's that pretty, shiny thing between the brake shoes at the bottom of the plate. I tore it up slightly with my vice grips (I really need to buy myself another bench vice -- an indispensable shop tool for many projects), but the adjusters look -- and more importantly work -- as good as new now. It will no longer be a wrestling match with the 1/4" adjusting nut on the back of the plate.
My media blasting cabinet arrived today, but not the compressor or blast media to go with it, oddly enough. I cleared off a spot on my workbench for the cabinet and can't wait to start cleaning up the calipers, rear drum covers, front springs, caps and other stuff for repainting. My Koni shocks should arrive tomorrow. I should be ready to bleed the brakes and mount the wheels hopefully by the end of this weekend or perhaps early next week, depending on how soon I can get the shocks cleaned, re-painted and put back together. My hope is to take my first "real" test drive a week from Saturday. After I sandblast and repaint the calipers, I'm going to go over the bores with very fine emory cloth and some DOT 5 brake fluid, rather than splitting them apart and using a commercial honer. Then I'll flush the calipers one more time with denatured alcohol and spray paint the exterior before replacing the seals. The picture at right shows the finished rear brake assembly, awaiting the refitting of the drums. It sure looks better now than it used to!
1/26/00 -- I was able to bead blast my rear brake drums this evening since the compressor and glass bead media arrived today in the mail. This was my first experience in bead blasting and it was a bit of a disappointment. I guess I was expecting a higher rate of beads to come out of the gun or faster progress or something, but I'm still sort of just working things out. Two things I learned this evening: If your compressor is a smaller one like mine and puts out 2 horses or less, try short, frequest bursts of the trigger when blasting, versus sustained output. The pressure seems to remain higher this way and the results are better.
Not finding a particularly satisfying way to plug the bore holes on my caliper assemblies, I've decided to forego the bead blasting idea for them and will probably just wire brush and blast clean the exterior with brake cleaner before painting them tomorrow. I also hope to have the calipers rebuilt -- I've got the kit and new pistons waiting. If all goes well, I should have the brakes all put back together and ready to bleed by tomorrow night!
1/27/00 -- Well, I've set aside the romantic notion of having the brakes bled tonight -- or tomorrow. However, it was a very good day and I got a lot done. I started by painting the rear brake drum covers. After much deliberation, I just decided to paint them flat black and used the heat resistant paint made for barbeque grills, among other things. I hope it works better than the paint that came on MY grill!
I also decided to paint the front calipers and spare wire wheel after I bead blasted the loose bits of paint and spots of rust off the inside rim. I got creative and crammed a tennis ball inside the first caliper to seal off the piston bores from getting dirty or contaminated with paint. had originally wanted to bead blast the calipers, but the tennis ball didn't end up fitting between the openings as snugly as I would have felt good about for bead blasting, but it was fine for painting purposes.
I cleaned off the calipers very good with a stiff wire brush, then hit the assembly with compressed air to get rid of any remaining dust. For the second caliper, I tore an old car washing sponge in half and crammed it between and into the cylinder bores, which actually worked better than the tennis ball -- and was much easier to extract, too!
I also painted the front spring assembly with the old shocks still in place. I used a dark gray (really mostly black) metallic spray paint that looks real nice I think. My first setback of the day came when I lugged my freshly painted (but now dried) springs to my local garage to have them compress those buggers to remove and replace the old shocks with the new set -- but the manager of the garage that I'd spoken to about this last week was out until Monday and his nephew said they couldn't do it because he didn't know where the correct tool was. Great.
Since I'd also painted my wire wheel (using the same Rustoleum "chrome" paint that I used on the calipers) I decided to try the guys at Service Specialists and was pleased to learn that they could change the shocks for me and do the tire at the same time, also.
Unfortunately, they weren't able to get things done today and I'll have to pick up the rebuilt struts tomorrow morning. Make that afternoon. As part of my business, I'm the editor and publisher of TheBIGPictureDVD.com -- a DVD and home theater resource site with about 3.5 million visits a month. A producer for ABC News with Peter Jennings called today to book an interview with me for tomorrow (!) that will appear on the network news broadcast Monday or Tuesday. They're sending a film crew to my house tomorrow. What a blast! So... I doubt that I'll get much done with the car...
Keeping that in mind, I went ahead and rebuilt my calipers and remounted them on the car this evening. I had a bit of trouble at first determining how the large dust seals were supposed to be fitted, but I finally figured it out. Make sure the stamped letter side goes up when you're fitting the seal to the piston. But first things first...
After extricating the tennis ball and plucking out the sponge from the cylinder bores, I poured a small amount of DOT 5 in the bores and used some fine emory cloth to clean out some old brake fluid which had dried in there (which made getting the pistons out so difficult to begin with). The emory cloth came in a long strip, which I rolled up and set inside the bore. Then, I let it expand out as far as it could go and gave each bore a good cleaning.
After I was satisfied that there was no gunk left in the bores, I rinsed them out with DOT 5 again and blew compressed air through the lines to make sure that the inside lines were clear of any debris. After wiping the insides down again with a clean dry cloth, I brought the calipers inside the house to insert the seals and new pistons. Pouring a small amount of DOT 5 in each chamber, I made sure that the entire inside surface of the bore was coated with a thin film of fluid. Then, I installed the inside seals, which was very easy -- taking care not to twist the rubber askew while I was inserting them. Then, I'd pour a small amount of DOT 5 in there again and made sure that the seals were covered by the fluid before gently pressing the new pistons into place, making sure to keep an even pressure across the face of the piston for easier insertion.
Before fitting the pistons in the calipe, I installed the dust cap. Once the piston was in the chamber fully, I would then clip down the lip of the seal with the supplied fastener.
Once all four pistons were refitted, I installed the new pads and anti-squeal plates.
TIP: When removing the old pads from the caliper assembly, set them down on your bench in the proper orientation so you can use them as a reference when installing your new set.
Once the pads were in, I remounted the calipers to their assemblies! All that's left now is to clean the inside of the drums thoroughly with brake cleaner (they're currently greasy to the touch -- which is not good!), bolt them on, connect the front brake hoses and bleed the system! I'm so nervous! I'd bleed them tonight, except for the fact that I'm out of brake cleaner, there are no auto parts stores nearby and I have to go shopping for a new sweater to wear for the TV thing tomorrow at the request of my wife.
When the news crew leaves tomorrow afternoon, I'm going to finish the brakes, re-install my newly rebuilt front struts and HOPEFULLY mount the hub adapters and wire wheels and go for a ride! Too bad my Spitfire is on blocks in the garage -- maybe I could have parked it in the driveway and got it on TV!
1/28/00 -- The ABC Nightly News crew came and went today. That was a strange and surreal experience for sure -- and also lots of fun. After their truck left, I got out of my "good" clothes, put my ragged jeans and faded short sleeved shirt on and headed out to the garage, ready to hopefully button everything up and bleed the brakes. I managed to get the new front struts re-installed after some effort, connected the front brake hoses back to the calipers and went to put my drum covers back on the rear wheels. They were exceptionally tough to get back on. Things were VERY tight. However, once the drums were back on, the wheels turned with no problem so I think everything there will be okay.
The biggest problem -- and my most disheartening setback to date -- was that one of the wheel studs on the right rear drum has lost it's grip and now spins freely on the mounting plate. Making matters worse, I had tightened down the lug nuts on the drum to insure that it was seated properly and fully before removing the nuts again to fit my wire wheel hub adapters. All of the nuts came off -- except one. Now, I'm either going to have to split the nut or cut the stud off behind the bolt (I think I have enough clearance to do this) before wrestling with that damned drum cover again to remove it so I can replace the stud with a new one. Several list members of spitfires@autox.team.net came to my rescue once again with offers of replacement studs and lots of helpful advice on how to get that nut off of there -- including complete shopping lists of what I need to buy in order to do it!
Amazing. The folks on that list are truly amazing to me. I started the evening feeling great disappointment and crestfallen. Now, as I'm about ready to hit the rack, I feel empowered with the new knowledge that's been shared with me -- and I plan on making short work of that wheel stud tomorrow morning. I'm still shooting for a test drive sometime this weekend.
1/29/00 -- I hit the ground running this morning and picked up a "nut buster" for $8 at Kragen. After breaking the nut on the bad lug bolt, I was able to remove the brake drum once again without much trouble. A few taps on the rim of the drum from the rear with a standard hammer and it was off.
Finding the replacement lug bolt (aka wheel stud) was a real ordeal. The only place that might have had it was closed when I took a drive over there. I'd left a message for Erick at British Masters and had given up any hope of driving the car this weekend when the phone rang. It turns out he was open for a few hours today and had what I needed! I drove over there and chatted with the owner for awhile, regaling him with my tale of losing my wire wheel off my old car at speed many years earlier... After speaking with him, I REALLY hoped that the hub plate wasn't worn, since replacing that would be a big ordeal that I could NOT do at home.
Fortunately for me, the replacement bolt worked perfectly and I set out in earnest to get the wheels back on the car after bleeding the brakes. Getting an assist from my 15 year old sone Alex, I connected my Mityvac to the first bleeder valve and began the bleeding process. It wasn't going real well, so I had Alex step on the brake pedal and we did things the old fashioned way -- which for me worked a lot better.
TIP: I've since been advised to smear the bleeder valve threads with grease or wrap them in teflon tape to prevent air leakage in the threads from undermining the Mityvac.
The brakes feel good and more importantly, they're working great considering they haven't "broken in" yet! My first test drive was wonderful. The transmission and rear end are quite and efficient. The transmission feels smooth and tight -- although getting into 4th gear proved to be a it tricky. I've checked the brake fluid level a few times and see no drop, so everything appears good there!
My biggest problem now is a rough running engine that's only firing on 3 cylinders! But we'll address THAT on a different page!
Note: Actually, I'll address it right now. The No.3 spark plug was merely fouled and the point gap was off. My friend Gary "Bear" Williams came over to watch the Superbowl and we ended up missing all but the last quarter and a half of the game. Bear knows cars! Before I knew it, he had the car running VERY well -- and getting into 4th was as easy as remembering the slanted H pattern of the shifter. Down and slightly to the left is all it took to get into 4th easily.
The handbrake has been a bit inconsistent to say the least since I acquired the car. Turns out, the retention clip from the large pivot pin that runs through the mount was missing, allowing the large pin to come halfway out. The mount itself was also a bit bent out of shape as you can see in the photo.
TIP: A loose fitting C clip is nobodies friend. when replacing circlips, use the smallest, tightest one you can get away with. Which will no doubt be the correct one.
I dug around in my ancient toolbox and found two different sized circlips. The first one went on too easy. The second one was smaller and took some effort with pliers to squeeze into place. Perfect. Now the handbrake is correctly aligned again and works like new, but I think I'll lubricate the mechanism also.
Please. Always wear your seatbelt while driving -- and that goes double for your children if you have any.
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