72HCODE
"My World is Fire and Blood"
Part 1 started here:
http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-never-ending-master-cylinder-leaking-issue
Part 2 here:
http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-master-cylinder-experiment
its mid august;
Recap, 8-10 years ago i made a poor decision in rebuilding my entire brake system. I decided to Go Stainless steel on the lines, and Dot 5 for the brake fluid.
On the surface that may seen like 2 good ideas but over time it has proven to be the worst thing ever.
So the gift that keeps on giving: Since my master cylinder experiment was a success in that the thing has not leaked in over a month i felt much better about driving the car on VERY long trips.
so i've been doing that putting 100s of miles on the car and getting used to the weird issues it still has. one nagging issue is she pulls to the left under heavy braking. I've done the alignment a few times and everything in the rear is new and i've messed with the adjusters 100000s of times and so have professionals but to no avail she still pulls left.
Now years ago when i rebuilt my rear drums, i made another error i ordered new wheel cylinders and i was told one side was on back order but they sent me replacements. I also didn't know they made 2 different sizes of wheel cylinders, i just ordered what i thought was correct.
off hand i do not remember the size cylinders, just that one was a wagner and the other might of been a doorman. I put them on the car and went on my way... the car would pull left on heavy braking. I had other problems to slay so i left it on the todo list.
about a year later i learned about the different cylinders and i ordered a matched set of Left and right larger piston wheel cylinders these were doorman parts, except with all the other stuff going on i never installed them. I had a garage try redoing my alignment a couple of times and we cranked the right rear wheel cylinder to compensate for the pull. It never worked i just got used to it.
well driving the car more it really is a safety issue, i had worked so many problems out that it was time to go back to the rear drums and have another look.
As luck would have it since my original brake rebuild many more reproduction or re-placement parts had become available.
So i gathered all the goodies to refresh my drums.
now i had inspected the rear drums each year looking for leaks and never saw an issue.
So i took everything apart and what i found surprised me.
turned out both rear wheel cylinders had in fact been leaking pretty badly, the brake dust and slow leak had masked the problem from my visual inspections and it was not until i took everything out that i could see it was a bad leak.
the first thing i did was take apart my new wheel cylinders remove the rubber and soak them in Dot 3 for a couple hours. then put the new cylinders together(cross fingers) and reinstall the drums with some additional new replacement parts that didn't exist 8-10 years ago.
bleed the system with Dot 5 and went for a spin, marginal improvement the pull was much less but still there. now i need to keep an eye on the rear drums and now i'm focusing on the front right caliper as a possible problem. the fronts were replaced at the same time as the rears for a rebuild.
I suspect i will find a weeping leak on the caliper piston from the dot 5 as i saw on the rear wheel cylinders. Again i will try my trick of treating the seals with Dot 3 before going to dot 5.
What is the upshot of all this?
in the future on any car i do, Stainless steel brake lines will never be an option and I will not need to worry about weeping leaks caused by the stainless steel not giving and sealing correctly in the cones of the fittings.
mild lines installed correctly do not leak, thus Dot 3,4,or 5.1 would be a welcome change and keep the rubber seals from leaking, the only attraction to dot 5 is not absorbing water and not eating paint, but otherwise it just causes more issues with not swelling rubber seals correctly and giving you nagging leaks and pressure loss problems.
since my experience with Dot 5 and stainless lines has not been a good one i can tell the issues may not be resolved until i flush the system and go back to dot 3/4/5.1 however I'm still bartering hoping for a solution.
time will tell; now i never had a problem with the rears or front brakes not working, i can lock all 4 wheels but the balance was never right, and what exactly is causing the imbalance might be the slight pressure loss from weeping leaks from the dot 5 fluid.
next post will be a post operation on my front right caliper to see if it was in fact leaking, i will be replacing it with another New Reman unit and i will be treating the replacement with a dot 3 rubber seals bath before install and bleed with dot 5.
stay tuned.
http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-never-ending-master-cylinder-leaking-issue
Part 2 here:
http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-master-cylinder-experiment
its mid august;
Recap, 8-10 years ago i made a poor decision in rebuilding my entire brake system. I decided to Go Stainless steel on the lines, and Dot 5 for the brake fluid.
On the surface that may seen like 2 good ideas but over time it has proven to be the worst thing ever.
So the gift that keeps on giving: Since my master cylinder experiment was a success in that the thing has not leaked in over a month i felt much better about driving the car on VERY long trips.
so i've been doing that putting 100s of miles on the car and getting used to the weird issues it still has. one nagging issue is she pulls to the left under heavy braking. I've done the alignment a few times and everything in the rear is new and i've messed with the adjusters 100000s of times and so have professionals but to no avail she still pulls left.
Now years ago when i rebuilt my rear drums, i made another error i ordered new wheel cylinders and i was told one side was on back order but they sent me replacements. I also didn't know they made 2 different sizes of wheel cylinders, i just ordered what i thought was correct.
off hand i do not remember the size cylinders, just that one was a wagner and the other might of been a doorman. I put them on the car and went on my way... the car would pull left on heavy braking. I had other problems to slay so i left it on the todo list.
about a year later i learned about the different cylinders and i ordered a matched set of Left and right larger piston wheel cylinders these were doorman parts, except with all the other stuff going on i never installed them. I had a garage try redoing my alignment a couple of times and we cranked the right rear wheel cylinder to compensate for the pull. It never worked i just got used to it.
well driving the car more it really is a safety issue, i had worked so many problems out that it was time to go back to the rear drums and have another look.
As luck would have it since my original brake rebuild many more reproduction or re-placement parts had become available.
So i gathered all the goodies to refresh my drums.
now i had inspected the rear drums each year looking for leaks and never saw an issue.
So i took everything apart and what i found surprised me.
turned out both rear wheel cylinders had in fact been leaking pretty badly, the brake dust and slow leak had masked the problem from my visual inspections and it was not until i took everything out that i could see it was a bad leak.
the first thing i did was take apart my new wheel cylinders remove the rubber and soak them in Dot 3 for a couple hours. then put the new cylinders together(cross fingers) and reinstall the drums with some additional new replacement parts that didn't exist 8-10 years ago.
bleed the system with Dot 5 and went for a spin, marginal improvement the pull was much less but still there. now i need to keep an eye on the rear drums and now i'm focusing on the front right caliper as a possible problem. the fronts were replaced at the same time as the rears for a rebuild.
I suspect i will find a weeping leak on the caliper piston from the dot 5 as i saw on the rear wheel cylinders. Again i will try my trick of treating the seals with Dot 3 before going to dot 5.
What is the upshot of all this?
in the future on any car i do, Stainless steel brake lines will never be an option and I will not need to worry about weeping leaks caused by the stainless steel not giving and sealing correctly in the cones of the fittings.
mild lines installed correctly do not leak, thus Dot 3,4,or 5.1 would be a welcome change and keep the rubber seals from leaking, the only attraction to dot 5 is not absorbing water and not eating paint, but otherwise it just causes more issues with not swelling rubber seals correctly and giving you nagging leaks and pressure loss problems.
since my experience with Dot 5 and stainless lines has not been a good one i can tell the issues may not be resolved until i flush the system and go back to dot 3/4/5.1 however I'm still bartering hoping for a solution.
time will tell; now i never had a problem with the rears or front brakes not working, i can lock all 4 wheels but the balance was never right, and what exactly is causing the imbalance might be the slight pressure loss from weeping leaks from the dot 5 fluid.
next post will be a post operation on my front right caliper to see if it was in fact leaking, i will be replacing it with another New Reman unit and i will be treating the replacement with a dot 3 rubber seals bath before install and bleed with dot 5.
stay tuned.
