Are these car brakes worn?

[Derek Geldard]

Only for so-long IIRC. ;-)

Derek

[The Natural Philosopher]

More than you I would say.

Have you ever driven a box without any synchro at all?

[The Natural Philosopher]

It can be on every car I have come across, if you have a ramp, a mirror and a lamp..drum brakes are a different matter entirely, however.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Cos I wanted to get home, it was before the days of mobile phones and I couldn't afford the 60 quid mate.

And besides, there was only one man who knew that car well enough to fix it, and he was in Cambridge. We sort of built it together. It was..ahem...Somewhat non standard in many departments. And that was the problem. Id fitted a scarp Ford Something brake servo to it, but it wasn't strapped down well enough, , and it eventually wore a brake pipe out.

Its still in my garage today. Must get it back on the road..some day..

[The Natural Philosopher]

yep. Driving highly loaded vans with crap brakes (although as good as they could ever be) taught me that one. Extreme anticipation.

Mind you, on a Bedford CA about the only place it has ANY ability to pull g's in braking. Outbraking people into roundabouts which had short dualled sections leading up to them was its only real way to overtake...

[Andy Dingley]

Single piston sliding caliper. You often can't even see the pads unless you slide the caliper out.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Has he? hes been in my killfile for years now. All mouth and no trousers.

get a jaguar. the you can overtake 100 yards of traffic in 150 yards. I loved my jags. Sigh. Just not the cost of running them... real CARS they are. Not boxes on wheels.

Lke the bloke said about eh Harley Davidsons ' when asked, 'but does it get you where you want to go any better?' he replied. 'Man, when I am awn mah Hog, I am already where ah want to be!'

Jags were like that. Just nicee cars to be IN. surrounded by luxury, quality stereo, climate control, slip her into cruise control amnd sit in the slow lane at 62mph with the trucks, and let the beemers blast past, knowing you could beat the bloody lot of them if you wanted to.

Knowing that one day the oil would run out, I ended up with an XKR, for a couple of years. Just for the experience. Top spec 155mph car. Brembo brakes brakes and stereo to match. Now THAT was a Car!

>

[The Natural Philosopher]

I think above idle actually. twas so when I played with one. rev em up, and let the engine drop. It goes down to maybe 500 RPM before the sensors panic and start injecting again..you can here 'em rattling..:-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

The one my mate called upon me to fix(and never paid me for), had that problem. When we walked into Unipart brandishing te gerabox casing, the man already had the right parts on the counter..'here's the nut' he said 'and here's the locking washer that stops it coming undone, an here's a gasket for that casing' 'what locking washer ' we said' 'the one they dint fit in the factory till a lot of them had dropped their gearbox oil on the pavement'. We got a new casing from a scrapyard, boorrowed a massive torque wrench and a socket to fit the bloody nut, and STOOD on teh end of it 180 ft lb it was supposed to need - and bent the tabs up as well. And bolted the casing on and filled it up with oil. Me mate sold it, made 1500 quid qnd gave me a glass of wine in thanks.

Later on he stitched me up for a LOT more than that, but that's another story. What are friends for if not to screw you totally just because they can?

[The Natural Philosopher]

was it? I liked em. Lovely little engine, dead light steering and could be thrown around well. shame the engines always blew up.

[The Natural Philosopher]

actually there's a trick there with a carbed engine. Never tried it on a injected..with the engine OFF and push on the accelerator. Its now PUMPING air and compression DOES do the biz. much better braking!

Another useful trick for when the brakes fail totally.

I discovered it by accident when a wire fell of the distributor :-)

Not even so good there. I had an XJS and I slapped it into second going down a steep icy hill..and the back end started to overtake me..

it was really a question of crash now or crash later. I acellerated just enough to get the back back in, and made it round te bend at the bottom somehow.

With the possible exception of the Triumph swing axle cars, the most tail happy car I have ever driven...

[Ste]

I'd say those pads had more life in them, but given that they are showing signs of age I wouldn't say it was worth losing sleep over after the fact.

[Ste]

No, what happens is if you have an antifreeze leak above the bellhousing (I've come across quite a few Ford Zetec engines, in particular, with leaky thermostat housings directly above the bellhousing), that trickles down onto the linkage or release fork, and the release fork tends to conduct the antifreeze into the bellhousing and onto the clutch, so moving parts start to rust and the plates become contaminated. As I say, it's surprisingly common.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember The Natural Philosopher saying something like:

Unless the tow charge was extortion in action, of course.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Andy Dingley saying something like:

Yes, pneumatic throttle on the Mk1, but memory plays tricks.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember The Natural Philosopher saying something like:

It used to be commonplace on cars to remove an inspection bung to see the shoe thickness. Understandably, as a cost-cutting measure, the makers have stopped that. It's still common on light trucks and commercials.

[Ian]

No, what happens is if you have an antifreeze leak above the bellhousing (I've come across quite a few Ford Zetec engines, in particular, with leaky thermostat housings directly above the bellhousing), that trickles down onto the linkage or release fork, and the release fork tends to conduct the antifreeze into the bellhousing and onto the clutch, so moving parts start to rust and the plates become contaminated. As I say, it's surprisingly common. .................................... Ah. Thanks.

[Ian]

Couldn't you find another car to tow? :o)

[Ian]

Or a Commer Q4.

No synchro. At all.

[Andy]

My daily commute is over 100 miles but most of that is on motorways so although I do a lot of miles I never have to brake much. Brake-wise my commute is probably similar to 20 miles of urban driving.

Andy