Back to the Body Shop

The body shop called...they want my Stude back.

So I told 'em to come pick it up. 

On to number three

Now that I've gotten the power steering leaks under control (ok, mostly--I have a very small leak around one of the hose connections on the power control valve; I've tightened it up a bit, so we'll see if that fixes it...) it was time to move on to the leaks in the brake system.

From my research on the subject, I have a couple of things against me: I'm using synthetic (Dot 5) fluid and stainless steel lines. Stainless steel is exceptionally hard, which makes it difficult to get it to crush sufficiently in order to establish a seal, and Dot 5 fluid is a bit thinner than traditional fluid. Plus I really didn't have any indication that the residual check valves and proportioning valve provided with the dual master cylinder/disc brake kit were rated for Dot 5 fluid; I figured I'd just start over.

So I ordered a very nice set of residual check valves and a fancy proportioning valve made by Wilwood, ran down to the parts store and purchased a collection of various lengths of coated brake line, and went to work.

First, I found a suitable location to mount the proportioning valve, drilled a couple of holes in the floor, and used carriage bolts to avoid leaving a big bump under the carpet.

After that, it was simply a matter of bending and tweaking a bunch of brake line.

Now all that remains is to bleed the system and see if I have any more leaks. Fingers crossed.

Not so fast...

"Ok, something isn't quite right," I thought, looking down at the half quart or so of power steering fluid on the floor of my garage. The second power steering pump was now leaking out the shaft seal. What was happening?

After a little research, I realized that the rubber seal that goes under the wing nut holding the lid on the reservoir was blocking a small hole put there to relieve pressure. Hoping that's the case, I pulled the pump off, verified that it was leaking from the front seal, and went out and bought a new seal and a couple of o-rings for under the reservoir. And I cut a little bit out of that seal to let the lid vent.

The most time today was spent cleaning up the reservoir and pulley for paint--I figured while I had it out I'd paint it black.

I'm not going to say it is fixed yet--we'll have to see. Fingers crossed though.

I also replaced my beat up old parking brake handle with a new old stock one. The grip portion of the handle requires paint, so I sprayed it silver to match the column and dash, and installed it. It is nice to have a parking brake again.

Careful observers will notice that I nicked the paint on the mounting bracket--an easy fix, but I'll wait until I install the dash to take care of that (and any other nicks along the way.)