re: Brake MC: new or rebuild?

[TJCallahan@xxxxxxx]

In AD v7n228 Ron wrote:

><snip>
>I'd like to know the pros and cons of simply buying a rebuild kit.
><snip>

It depends all on your individual level of comfort, your mechanical abilities,
the amount of time you have, and your confidence in yourself.

If you are ready to examine the MC with a careful eye and do the clean &
rebuild job with great care and use clean-room precautions, then you should be
OK. If not, best to leave the job to someone else. BTW, you have to
disassemble the MC before being able to determine if it is rebuildable. Lots
of water collects in old brake fluid, rusts the parts awful.

I've rebuilt the MC (and all eight wheel cylinders - 3-shoe fronts!) in my '63
spider before, and it worked great for many years. I will rebuild them all
again here soon. They are clean and straight and I trust my work. I am also
pretty darn careful about how I do it, I keep a proper attitude, and keep the
e-brake in good working order - just in case.

Just a note on my version of a "proper attitude" - I expect parts to fail,
make a contigency plan for the failure, and am pleasantly surprised when they
work. This "attitude" is something I picked up in pilot training - rely on
your systems, expect them to fail (not quite the contradiction you might think
at first), make plans for what to do if/when they fail, and be pleasantly
surprised when they do not fail! This is not for everyone, but those who have
piloted an airplane know where this is coming from.

You said you did your Celica's MC before, rebuilding the Alfa MC would be very
similar in that you need to have the correct parts, patience, a very clean
area, LOTS of clean brake fluid, and the correct tools. The actual MC parts
will differ in design and shape and number, but the work will be familiar to
you. Just follow the kit/shop manual directions carefully and err on the
conservative side.

Keep in mind that some "non-rocket scientist" type person somewhere puts
several hundred of these things together each day. And they're probably
working to a quota, paid by the completed assembly or such. While this might
say a few things in favor of skill level, it also might say something about
the (low?) level of difficulty. They have perfect/new parts and the ideal
environment and training, but you can duplicate those with a little care,
thought, and effort.

Whether you choose to rebuild or buy new, you will have to break into the
system as a whole. Therefore, you should plan some careful static and low-risk
dynamic braking tests before pronouncing your job complete. When you think you
have the MC installed and the system reassembled and bled properly, **without
moving the car** STAND on the brake pedal (a figure of speach for those of us
with floor mounted pedals). It should be solid after some normal travel. If it
slowly moves to the floor, you have not done the task properly or completely,
go back to the beginning and start again. If it quickly goes to the floor,
consider another line of work.

If the static test is OK, move the car to a large, flat, safe area for your
first trial run. Make the first runs low speed, getting progressivly more
agressive with the pedal pressure and the speed as you go. Leave a large zone
for coasting, should things not go right. Do mind the shoe/pad break-in
requirements if you chose to replace them at this time.

One last thought - rebuilding the MC yourself means your heirs have no one to
sue if they should discover you were not up to the task. Buying a new unit
gives them someone to turn the lawyers loose on. :-) Just kidding on this last
bit.

Good luck.

Tom
'63 Spider
Seattle

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