argh! puddle under the car

[edward ericson]

Went out to the garage to check oil just now (kept forgetting since the change). Spotted a hella puddle under Bridget’s mid front. No gas smell. Gotta be brake fluid then, right?

But… still have pedal, and no loss observed in reservoir.

I pulled my master cylinder cover off and looked in there. Same mass of gunk on the floor of that chamber as there was always–feels like grease, seems to have some kind of insect pods in it.

Started looking for a breach in the front-to-back brake line but no luck.

Master cylinder, right? Right? 

[newkitman]

Either brake fluid or fuel. If its gooey then my vote is a leaking MC; probably where the pedal pushrod enters the MC. There’s a double wall where the MC mounts and it can take forever for a leak to show if its a slow leak. Yours sounds more like a blown seal. If it was the brake tube running from the MC to the rear then the fluid would be in the cockpit and soaking the carpet.

Allen Caron
VW based 53MGTD - "MoneyPenny"
"If one thing matters, everything matters" - from the book The Shack

[edward ericson]

Not gas. Ordered a new German MC plus all the hard lines. Also a Pertronix igniter while I was at it, cause what the hell?

$200 more but this time she’ll have totally new brakes AND no more points. Soon as the stuff comes, provided the temp has dropped enough that being outside doesn’t cause me seizures. Dang it’s hot out there.

[Mark Hendrickson]

Ed, don’t forget to get the Pertronix coil too. If you are using an OEM or Bosch blue coil, chances are it will have an internal resistor that knocks the voltage down to 7 or 8 volts. Hence no hotter spark than stock points/condenser. 

The beauty of a pointless ignition is that you can run 12v to the coil and it makes gobs more secondary voltage. Just be sure to get the right ohms value and coil model that match the model of Pertronix you bought. You WILL notice a difference.

Do you ever run down to Peek Performance in Seabrook (Lanham)? They have a lot of air cooled VW stuff on the shelves.

[edward ericson]

Thanks, Mark. I got the kit, I think, coil should be in the box. I talked to a guy at Peek a few weeks back (Sean, was it?). Super nice guy & hope to meet some day. Hear he’s moving across the Bay though, so maybe I can get to the PG County shop before that happens.

[edward ericson]

Thing’s got me confused. The leak seems to have stopped. The MC reservoir is still full. I drove the car today after work and it feels exactly the same as it did last week. Same brakes. Same everything.

Guess I’ll rack her up this weekend and run some tests, see if the rear wheels are responding to the brake pedal.

meantime, the new speedo cable came today. It’s gonna work perfectly, I think.

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