Another puddle on the garage floor. Looks to be gas this time *sigh*
It’s always something. The boot has always smelled like gas… my guess is with the crazy hot weather we’ve had the past week, things are expanding and opening a tiny leak into a small leak. Guess I’ll be pulling the gas tank for repair…
Well, good news for a change. It was in fact the rear right brake cylinder spewing fluid at an alarming rate. However, I was doing some work in the garage and happened to glance over at the rear axle assembly that I removed from my parts car (and was too heavy to drag up to the attic) and lo and behold, the cylinders were still mounted! For some reason I had convinced myself that Ernie had pulled them (like he did the front calipers) before selling me the car, but there they were.
Pulled the right rear cylinder, took it apart and cleaned it up just to be safe, and swapped it out with Ms. J’s faulty one. After a quick power bleed, I can stop again! This parts car is starting to look like the best investment I’ve made in a long time.
Yup, brake problems indeed. Decided to drive Ms. J to work today for the first time in a couple of weeks, and the pedal is going right to the floor. Looks like it’s time to hit the club store for a new rear cylinder (unless I get lucky and it’s something silly like a loose fitting… haven’t gotten down there to look yet). Sigh.
Donor car is gone. Got the sills and rockers removed and stored, along with the rear valance (or whatever it’s called, the rear panel that the taillights mount into), the rear axle and suspension, and what was left of the front suspension, and called it good enough. What was left was loaded by myself and my two teenage sons onto my little flatbed trailer and carted off to the local recycling center. At 7 cents a pound, this pile of classic British steel resulted in the recycling center handing me $23.80. Kind of sad…
The remainder of the summer will now be odds and ends that will keep her in driving condition (gotta drive when I can in Wisconsin, the season will be over way too soon) and getting the body panels from the donor car prepped for this winter’s transplant. Other than that, probably not too much work on her for a while, though I noticed yesterday that there is a bit of fluid leaking from the area of the right rear brake. It’s always something…
On the plus side, was vacationing with the inlaws this week in NY state and dropped in to visit Brett Gibson. Had a great couple of hours chatting, sharing tips and getting insights, and looking over his JHs.