Two steps forwards....

...and one step back?  Planned on flushing the brakes today and bleeding them using DOT 4 fluid.  The choice of brake fluid is somewhat controversial,  Glycol based vs Silicone based fluids and each has it's pros and cons.  Glycol based fluids such as DOT 4 AND DOT 5.1 can damage paint and are hygroscopic while silicone based fluid, DOT 5 is not and will not damage paint.  I use DOT 5 in my '68  and DOT 4 in my 73, both work fine BUT the DOT 5 fluid needs to be changed as often as the DOT 4 IMO.  While the DOT 5 is not hygroscopic water still gets into the system from condensation pooling in the lowest area leading to corrosion.  The glycol based fluids hold the water in solution and are easier to bleed the water out, often when I bleed my car with the silicone fluid I will loosen the lowest line in the caliper to get the water out of the system.  One other thing I've noticed is that with silicone fluid one has to be very careful to avoid having air in the system to the point I'll put the fluid in the reservoirs the day before (sucking out the old stuff from the reservoirs) so that the air bubbles have a chance to settle out.

With RJ, knowing what was in the rear calipers I decided to flush the system with 91% isopropyl alcohol then blow them out with compressed air then replenish with DOT 4.  I did this with the clutch lines as well but ran into problems when I decided I had flushed the rear line (hadn't hooked up the flex hose as I didn't want any debris getting into our newly refurbished rear calipers).  Well the hose that that came with the kit had the wrong fittings and was too short.  Dang it, stalled and will have to order a correct line.  I wonder if I've run into the same issue as I had with the rotors, the transition from 3.8 to 4.2 cars?

So when I stalled on this part of the project it was time to do something else and the resonators needed to be installed.  If you look back to one of the early pictures they looked pretty snaggle toothed, one was longer than the other, they weren't parallel and just looked bad.  Well that's ancient history now, the correct mounts fixed that right up and they look acceptable IMHO ;-)

The other thing that I addressed today were the tie rod ends, there has been a problem with some of the tie rod ends that have been shipped to people and I was concerned but with the assistance of Dick Maury of Coventry West I determined that we do indeed have the right ones-thanks Dick!

This is what was in the calipers

Tie rod ends held in position, the ones for later cars such as the XJ6 look identical except they don't have the same range of motion that the E Type units do and if used in the place of the correct ones will damage the rack.

Well, that's all folks.

Cheers,

5 hrs