With the electrical pretty much all sorted (just need to put the center console back together after I replace the damaged tachometer gauge ring), it's time to move onto the brakes. Arguably the most important part of the car, these haven't been touched in 37 years, so that means every component needs to be looked at:
- Brake master cylinder rebuilt or replaced
- Hard brake lines cleaned
- Rubber brake hoses replaced
- Wheel cylinders rebuilt or replaced
- Clutch master cylinder rebuilt or replaced
- Clutch slave cylinder rebuilt or replaced
- Clutch hose replaced
- Rear brake light pressure switch replaced (or removed and tested)
- Brake shoes measured and checked.
So, in order to find / order parts for the car, I took off (so far what I needed) in order to hunt them down. I'm happy to report the following:
- Found NOS front wheel cylinders in the UK and ordered four of them. Two on the left and two on the right. They make cheap Chinese knockoffs of the Triumph ones, but these are the wrong sized bore (.75" for the knockoffs, versus .70" for what's on the car right now). These should hopefully be here next week.
- I found a replacement NOS cylinder for the clutch master cylinder. It's not a very common one - I had to match up the part numbers on the cylinder to one I found on eBay. That took some time, but it should be here next week.
- I found a clutch slave cylinder that is made by Girling (same manufacturer as the original one), and nearly identical, but a slightly newer one that is used with scratch-built race cars. It will look the same, it's the same manufacturer, but it's new stock.
- Same with the brake master cylinder - I ordered a new Girling master cylinder from Pegasus Racing. This should work very well. I spent a long time cleaning the old one only to discover some pitting in the cylinder walls. I'm not sure if it would make a difference in leakage, but the master cylinder needs to be 100% foolproof, so the brand new one, in the right size bore, will work well.
- The brake shoes look like they should on a car that only has about 3,000 miles on it - brand new. I didn't anticipate seeing any oddness there, so I will just reuse them. They basically look brand new.
- Brake lines - I found a good, new replacement for the clutch slave, but I haven't started looking for the front or rear lines together because they will probably sold as a set (and I haven't taken off the rear quite yet). I also haven't taken off the rear wheel cylinder yet, but I think I know what's on there. But I will see later on tonight or tomorrow.
When I was taking all of this stuff off, I made sure to use a respirator, and some wet towels to wipe down the brake dust. On old cars like these, it's almost a 100% certainty that the dust contains asbestos particles, so you want to be 100% careful. I used a P100 mask (similar to what one uses for painting cars - VOC blocker).
Working to remove everything off of one corner per night is a good way to get it done while waiting for the parts. Once the parts arrive, reassembling everything should be very quick and easy!
-Wayne
