Operation Queso

Well, Young Queso left my wife stranded tonight. Thankfully she was close by, my mother was able to come sit at the house while the kids were asleep and I went out there and drove it back for her with no clutch. 

She called me as she was leaving for dinner to say that she was struggling to get it into gear and the pedal felt strange. Definitely a light pedal and although there is movement at the slave, it must not be enough to get disengagement. The seal at the slave is slightly moist so I guess poking around there is where I'll start when I get into it. 

In reply to AxeHealey :

Do the master and the slave as a set, and probably the hose as well. Then use good fluid and be done with it for a few years.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

Agreed that's likely the way forward as long as I'm not missing something else obvious. Haven't had a chance yet to really look at it but I think the moisture on the SC is pretty telling.

Question is, will I order the right parts? I know the build date of this car (according to the trunk latch) is right around when they switched to the verto clutch...

Woah. The fact that it worked at all is something of a miracle. 

In reply to Mezzanine :

Pretty gross in there. Everything is now replaced. Just need to bleed when I've got a second person to help.

According to my last post, it's been three weeks since I got all of the new parts installed. I've been trying to find time for my wife to help me bleed the clutch because she always says she wants to help but it just hasn't happened. I enlisted the help of a friend today. 

Queso drives again.

Well, Queso hadn't moved for a couple weeks and there was still no snow on the ground so I took it one night to wherever I was going. I got pulled over as I turned on to my street. Policeman asked if I knew why I got pulled over - I had literally no clue as it's almost impossible to break the speed limit in Queso. He says "Your lights aren't on, just daytime running lights". I say, sorry officer but there are no daytime running lights and I see that my headlights are on. Turns out, all of the rear lights just decided to stop working. So I'll have to figure that out.

I then got busy and never actually got it tucked away for the winter so yesterday I put some Stabil in the tank and decided to see if it would fire up. No problemo dice Queso. 

Don't mind the cable housing popping out and making the throttle stick.

Queso is awake. 

The issue with the lights was (probably still is) a loose fuse. The brakes feel softer than normal. Good thing because I was in desperate need of a project... 

I needed a car-related win yesterday after struggling with the brakes on the E21. Queso now has a working gas gauge!

I tried bleeding the brakes a few weeks ago and nothing at all came out. The MC reservoir was full of rust so I figured that was the issue. Ordered a new one, got it bench bled yesterday and... still nothing from the rear left! I shot brake clean into the lines from both ends and cleaned up the bleed screw. It was a battle, especially the front right where the bleed screw was totally blocked, but it's all bled and stops better than ever. 

I also put a new fuse in for the lights that seems to fit better so hopefully they stop going out all the time. 

My wife had been driving Queso pretty consistently for a while but a month or so ago it had been sitting for a few weeks and when I went to move it, the clutch lever was seized. I got it freed but...that ain't great. Last week I had a lunch meeting pretty close to home so I took the little block of cheese. 

I brought Stabil with me and after lunch took it and filled the tank to the brim. Considering we got a couple inches of slow last night, Queso is probably done for the season. It still runs great and stops great but needs some attention. It gets such little use though that it's way down the priority list. 

AxeHealey said:

a picture is worth a thousand words.  i thank you for posting this.  MonZora thanks you for posting this.

I feel like flushing the brakes/clutch preventatively with every oil change to get the moisture out of the system is almost whats necessary to keep things happy on old british cars. 

A buddy tried to talk me into swapping to silicone fluid, but everything I have seen indicates it could effect the feel. 

Apexcarver said:

I feel like flushing the brakes/clutch preventatively with every oil change to get the moisture out of the system is almost whats necessary to keep things happy on old british cars. 

A buddy tried to talk me into swapping to silicone fluid, but everything I have seen indicates it could effect the feel. 

there's a couple of bad things about silicone fluid:

first, it doesn't absorb / disperse water that naturally enters the system through the porosity of the hoses and the vent in the reservoir cap.  so the water will collect in a low spot somewhere and corrode from inside out.

second, if it boils, it remains as vapor rather than going back to liquid, so it will always be spongy after that.

note:  i've never used it, so i can't say i've experienced either of these things firsthand.  this is what i've been told over the years.

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah, that stacks with what I was hearing. Thanks for the additional detail! 

 Being that I occasionally use my LBC for autocross, it reinforces that I shouldnt be very interested in doing it. 

I will add as well more negative about silicone. If you rebuild with old stock Girling or Lockheed kits, anything built before 2005, and there are lots still out there, the silicone fluid melts the seals rapidly. i had a customer request that I followed with a 289 Cobra CSX21xx. Less than a year later the fluid was running out of the calipers. This should not happen with current production seals, but everything Angry said just reinforces my "Do Not Use" rule.

I certainly wouldn't use silicone fluid on any type of motorsports car.  But I did use it in my TR6 restored in 1995 with no apparent issues.  When my brother bought that car a few years ago, he replaced the brake master cylinder after it developed a slight leak.  The silicone prevented damage to the paint.  Whether silicone contributed to the demise of the cylinder is hard to say, but almost 30 years is pretty good service life for an original Girling hydraulic cylinder.

I would put two caveats here.  That car had stainless steel brake lines, and the system was bled on an annual basis to prevent water accumulation previously noted.

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

a picture is worth a thousand words.  i thank you for posting this.  MonZora thanks you for posting this.

Queso and I are happy to help!

Queso's clutch lever is a-stuck again.

I meant to make a habit of pressing the clutch pedal periodically over the winter but didn't. It's currently soaking. Hopefully it's as easy as it was last time to free up.

Queso is running great and, this past weekend, we got both car seats in the back. I brought my son in Queso to a family event and here's my wife driving home with both kiddos along for the ride.