February 24, 2005

Thursday Car Blogging

In the spirit of such things as Friday Bird Blogging, White Trash Wednesdays, etc., I'm starting my own "Thursday Car Blogging."

Last week, my story on the Land Rover rebuild and MG clutch woes started this entire thing, and I thought it would be a good thing to make this a weekly spot of sorts.

Perhaps it can be a collaborative effort? A Thursday Car Blogging Carnival? If you want in on this (Chris? Miss O'Hara?) let me know. Any vehicle topic goes...even if it involves a Yugo General Lee. Of course, most of my focus will be on old British vehicles, so it would be nice to have different people to mix it up a bit.

Today's episode...A Bad Brake Caliper. (yes, British vehicle ownership can be a weekly adventure)

Last week I received some new parts for the Land Rover rebuild (new brakes, etc), and I planned on putting them on this past Saturday. I decided to bring the MG out to drive to where I am keeping the Land Rover.

I don't drive the MG that much during the winter time. For one, it's not a good cold weather car (no roll up windows, the heater stinks, etc), and secondly, it's just not as much fun driving when you have the top up. With that in mind, I'll have to say with past experience, the less you drive one of these cars, the more it tends to break. Disuse brings about disrepair.

Before I pulled out of the garage, I had noticed what looked like a small puddle of water on the concrete next to the front, right tyre (it's spelled "tyre" if it's a British car), but I marked it off to the fact that my garage was built in the 30's and during the recent rain, the water probably got in under the door or something.

Well, I slowly backed the car out of the garage, but when I push the brake to slow down, the problem becomes pretty apparent as the brake pedal goes all the way to the floor without any resistance (sound familiar?). Of course, without brakes, the car keeps moving. Luckily, before my rear fender reaches the fence on the other side of the alley, I am able to turn it slightly uphill to the point it will stop. I am then able to coast back into the drive and stop it with good old clutch power.

It ends up that fluid in the floor wasn't water after all. It was good ole, diluted brake fluid (hey, it even tasted like water...heh). At least I found this out next to my garage before leaving instead of it happening while going down the road at full speed just as I'm coming up behind a line of stopped traffic (yes, that's happened to me before as well...a story for a future time though).

I pull out the trusty jack, remove my front tyre, and it takes me a minute to figure out where the leak came from exactly. My first thought was that either the brake hose had gone bad or it had come loose from the caliper. It actually ended up being a leak from around the inside caliper piston. In fact, I had never had this particular problem before. Brake calipers tend to be pretty reliable and really don't fail that often, but in this case, it had. Rust had probably gotten onto the piston shaft and caused fluid to seep around the seals. A bad enough leak, and you end up loosing brake pressure.

Now I have three options...1) Find a good used one; 2) Order a rebuild kit and attempt to put new seals on it; or 3) Buy a rebuilt caliper.

I've attempted option 1 to no avail. MGA brake calipers are harder to come by than MGB calipers (in fact, I probably have a few MGB calipers laying around somewhere, but they won't work on the MGA). I'm a little leery of option 2 because if the problem is the piston (which is more than likely), then it would cost almost as much as a new one to replace.

So, it looks like I'll be going with option 3...a rebuilt caliper from Apple Hydraulics. Not cheap, but they do an excellent job rebuilding their hydraulic parts...Brass sleeving of pistons (bye bye rust), new seals, etc.

By the way, I didn't get that much done on the Land Rover due to the MG issue. I did, however, get the hub assembly back together for the front, right wheel. I'm going to be ordering new inner and outer wheel bearings for the left side this weekend (I replaced the wheel bearings on the right side not long before she broke down).

The adventures continue.

Next week: Update on the brake caliper along with a Land Rover update. Oh, and I'm going to be getting a new digital camera very soon so that I will be able to provide good pictures with these updates. For example...pictures of brake fluid stains on the floor, etc.

Comments:

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I would be down with some car blogging. I'd even be interested in trying to revive my previous effort to get an entire blog together.

I've got a friend in seattle that just bought a '59 Chevy 32 Apache Fleetside long-bed pickup he plans on restoring, so I'd bet he'd have some good fodder from that.

How hard is it to get parts for an MG like that?

One nice thing about driving two late-80's sentras is that it ain't hard to find parts. Pullapart has like NINE sentras that are compatible at the moment.

Posted by: Chris Wage at February 24, 2005 11:56 AM

Or a weekly or even bi-weekly Car Carnival? Save from starting an entirely new blog, I guess...at least for now.

Parts aren't that hard to get for the MG (although for my particular MG, it can be harder than a later MGB).

There are two companies that I primarily use for most parts: Moss Motors (www.mossmotors.com) and Victoria British (www.victoriabritish.com). There are also independent guys that sell OEM parts...which are a lot better (but more expensive) than repro. A good guy for this type of thing is Paul Ogelsby of British Motor Cars in Kentucky. Other places specialize in certain types of parts (like Apple Hydraulics), and I go to those when necessary.

Posted by: Blake at February 24, 2005 12:42 PM

i always see British cars sitting on the side of the road - you could probably get parts there, as i am sure the current owners walked away for a reason. try not to slip in the massive puddle of oil that has leaked out of it, though, as you approach.

Posted by: jakec at February 25, 2005 08:22 AM

Cool. Well in any event, I'd be down for some car blogging. Let me know what you want to do..

Posted by: Chris Wage at February 25, 2005 07:01 PM