This picture says it all...
But not without issues. While waiting for the parts to arrive from Ray, I cleaned and prepared the calipers for the rebuild. I also adjusted the emergency hand brake, and tightened up the plastic fan bolts mounted from yesterday. By afternoon, the parts arrived to rebuild my Plus2 front calipers. I installed them and bleed them with my compressed air hookup:
I even had my son manually pump the brakes to bleed. I got all the air out of the system, but the brake pedal was low on first stroke. a "double pump" brought the pedal higher, so something was not right and the only thing left in the brake hydraulic system was the master cylinder. While removing, I could see brake fluid leakage from the Master Cylinder push rod here:
A tear down of the master cylinder during the rebuild process. Notice anything wrong here??
I rebuilt the master cylinder and re-installed, bled the system, and had my wife pump the brakes while bleeding, and the pedal is still too low and a "2nd pump" brings it up higher. It was too late in the day to do anything about it at this point and I did everything i was supposed to do, so i was determined to get a test drive in to actually feel how everything handled, operated, and better understand what needs further attention.
So with some nervous excitement, the car came down off the jack stands and I mounted the wheels, inflated the tires, torqued the K/O hubs and started the car. It stalled again. Uh oh, back to that security switch problem again. I played with it again, switching on/off/on/off to help clean contacts and this time, the car ran uninterrupted. Again, much determined, I figured I'd start up and down the driveway testing brakes, clutch and bring car up to temperature, etc.
The brakes are definitely impaired and not functioning well, The pedal is too low and it takes a 2nd pump to get them to stop. Even the clutch grabs just off the floor, as if its effective operating range is near the floor. Car was running fine and stopping good enough, that i got up the nerve to take it out on the road to see how suspension and drivetrain were working. Of course i only took it as far as i'd be able to push it home again, just around a block or two of my home. Actually I was quite impressed with how well it ran. Accelerated well, smooth, the memory of Roto-flex surging all came back to me and I had to re-aquaint myself with its nuances. Shifted into all gears and reverse, trans working fine, rear is quiet, the bumps were quiet, the car actually rode over the street/pavement quite nicely, quietly, and comfortably. So I was smiling and my previous memories of driving my yellow Elan 2 years ago all came back to me. It was a blast.
However, I am quite upset with the inferior condition and operation of the brakes mainly and the clutch secondly. The car is OK to trailer to LOG and display, however it is not up to snuff for any road miles yet until I sort out this braking issue.
My question earlier about if you see anything amiss concerning the MC components. I noticed the two chamber reservoir on the MC, and that the front chamber fluid fed the front brakes circuit, while the rearmost chamber fluid feeds the rear brake circuit. Is this correct? or should it be switched? I've seen other cars the other way around.
Or perhaps someone can speak concerning my unique setup of having Plus2 front calipers and original stock rear calipers. The BB book mentions that racers optionally installed Plus2 front calipers (bigger brakes) for racing purposes, but suggested some additional measures would need to be taken, such as compensation valve and booster? I can't find any such valve and I know i don't have a booster. Feel free to share your experience and/or suggestions on how to get my brake pedal to be higher for the first pedal stroke.
see you at LOG!!!