re: ABS

[Joe Elliott <jee@domain.elided>]

One of my best friends drives an '83 BMW w/ ABS.  The first winter he 
had it ('99-00?) the ABS clearly worked and kept us out of the hedges 
more than once.  Sometime between then and the next winter they quit 
working, although it's done nothing to make the car any less safe 
than it would have been without ABS in the first place.  ABS systems 
vary from car to car.  We all know that the ATE Mk II ABS in the 
Milano/75 3.0 (as well as various French and German cars) can fail in 
such a way that the rear brakes are disabled.  And some ABS is just 
dangerous in the first place--in a '94 Ford Taurus, for example, any 
braking at all going down my steep ice-covered driveway engaged the 
ABS and shook the car so much that it shimmied off the road.  Various 
Volvos, Audis, Jaguars, Alfas, Saabs, BMW's M-B's, and Hondas in the 
neighborhood go down (some of them can't get back up though) this 
driveway all the time without difficulty.

God bless the USA, where we can't import certain cars because they 
don't meet certain rules, but where (in most states) there is no 
annual roadworthiness test like you might encounter in Europe (or CA, 
or the eastern USA), so we still have our freedom not to maintain our 
cars and to make hazardous modifications.

Speaking of '80s BMW ABS and hazardous modifications, is anyone 
familiar with this (Bosch?) system?  Assuming I can repair the ABS in 
the afformentioned '83 735i, I'd like to rig up a "burnout switch" 
that would use the ABS system to disable the rear brakes.

Joe "hilarious typos" Elliott
'82 GTV6 <-- certainly not road legal in Europe (although my headlights are)
'73 Opel <-- roadworthiness not an issue at this point
*And we're always open to offers of unique vehicles for sale <$200 in 
the Cincinnati, Ohio area (or Pittsburgh, PA or Blacksburg, VA areas 
if they're drivable).
PS> I'm thinking I could really go for an R5 Turbo right now--anybody 
got an R5 Turbo in the states for ~$200???
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