Brake issues

Now that I finally received the title to my 1982 X yesterday, have plates on it, tires on the way (supposed to be delivered today, after I finally gave up on finding a brand I had heard of and ordered an off-brand from tires-easy.com), am starting to sort through some other issues to get the car on the road.

The brake fluid reservoir is cracked (and empty), so obviously that needs to be replaced. From what I've seen so far, the larger single tanks don't seem to be readily available, so the common solution seems to be to use 2 of the smaller ones. I know next to nothing about brakes, so these are probably stupid questions, but here goes:

1. How do I connect 2 of the smaller reservoirs together to replace the 1 larger original?

2. Do I just use the existing cap on one of the new, smaller reservoirs?

3. Once installed, can I just add brake fluid? I realize the existing fluid is old and probably needs replaced, but I have no idea how to do that.....I just want to get the car moving so I can take it somewhere to have the entire brake system looked at by someone who knows what they're doing.

4. The only time I have driven the car was when I drove it home approximately 10 miles after buying it last month, had a blowout with rear tire, and wheel was too hot to touch. It was suggested this may be a wheel bearing issue, but could a lack of brake fluid been the cause? If so, will adding fluid (after replacing the reservoir(s)) fix the issue temporarily?

Thanks for the advice!

Chris F said:

Now that I finally received the title to my 1982 X yesterday, have plates on it, tires on the way (supposed to be delivered today, after I finally gave up on finding a brand I had heard of and ordered an off-brand from tires-easy.com), am starting to sort through some other issues to get the car on the road.

The brake fluid reservoir is cracked (and empty), so obviously that needs to be replaced. From what I've seen so far, the larger single tanks don't seem to be readily available, so the common solution seems to be to use 2 of the smaller ones. I know next to nothing about brakes, so these are probably stupid questions, but here goes:

1. How do I connect 2 of the smaller reservoirs together to replace the 1 larger original?

The larger reservoir has 2 outlets. One for the front brakes and one for the rear.

2. Do I just use the existing cap on one of the new, smaller reservoirs?

The cap should have wires to it to tell if the fluid is low. If you dot not have this cap they are available from ebay or dealers.

3. Once installed, can I just add brake fluid? I realize the existing fluid is old and probably needs replaced, but I have no idea how to do that.....I just want to get the car moving so I can take it somewhere to have the entire brake system looked at by someone who knows what they're doing.

You should be replacing the brake hoses that go to the calipers. If these were dry they would have most likely collapsed internally and caused the brake caliper to drag and get very hot. Easy to change and they are not very expensive.

Speed Bleeders http://www.speedbleeder.com/ makes bleeding the brake easier and worth the cost.

4. The only time I have driven the car was when I drove it home approximately 10 miles after buying it last month, had a blowout with rear tire, and wheel was too hot to touch. It was suggested this may be a wheel bearing issue, but could a lack of brake fluid been the cause? If so, will adding fluid (after replacing the reservoir(s)) fix the issue temporarily?

see above for why the might have gotten hot.

Thanks for the advice!

Click to expand...

Answers in blue

I started answering your questions one at a time, then realized that wasn't going to work.

First, a question: you say you drove it home - Do you mean it started out under its own power until the blowout, or were you towing it? If under its own power, did the brakes seem to work? How about the clutch?

As toddr124 says, it's easy to replace the one big reservoir with two smaller ones; the big reservoir is divided down the middle with two outlets. The new reservoirs should come with their own caps, which are the same as the single-reservoir cap (except for the possible presence of a fluid-level sensor, which you don't need until you have everything else sorted out).

I wouldn't waste time filling and bleeding the system until I had gotten to the bottom of the rear wheel overheating problem and been through the rest of the brake system. It's just too likely that you'll find something else that will require opening and draining the system. The odds are very high that the caliper at the corner that overheated is toast.

Take the wheels off at all four corners, check the boots on the piston seals, the pads, the rotors. let us know if you find anything even slightly dubious and we can talk you through it.

Unless this work has been done recently, I would plan on replacing the brake hoses at all four corners. That will make it easier to drain and flush the old brake fluid

If you have any doubts at all about the hoses from the reservoirs to the master cylinders, replace them as well.

Yes, I did drive it home. The brakes seemed to work ok enough to stop the car, but not great. Clutch worked fine, except for a loud grind shifting from 2nd to 3rd (after that happened twice, I avoided 3rd for the rest of the way, just shifting from 2nd to 4th.)

Chris F said:

Yes, I did drive it home. The brakes seemed to work ok enough to stop the car, but not great. Clutch worked fine, except for a loud grind shifting from 2nd to 3rd (after that happened twice, I avoided 3rd for the rest of the way, just shifting from 2nd to 4th.)

Click to expand...

The 2->3 grind is probably not the clutch but more likely the third-gear synchro - that's the one that gets the most wear. If it's not too bad you can drive the car that way for a quite a while by matching revs carefully when you shift into 3rd, but eventually the tranny will have to come out to replace the synchro.

OK Chris... Welcome to the INSANITY...

I have some suggestions that may be a bit difficult and even costly... but you are listening to Mr. FRUGAL here... so be advised that in the long run it will not only be GOOD, but BEST, and actually CHEAPER!

1. DON'T MESS AROUND when it comes to BRAKES. Most likely it is NOT the rear wheel bearing but the brake caliper is "frozen" on its mount and locked up the caliper. Pull the wheel and pads to see... then most likely a set of 4 new rotors, pads and flex lines... as well as rebuilding the calipers or replacing the rears with rebuilts. Sounds expensive and complex, not really and you will be ASTOUNDED at how well this car will stop with good functioning stock brakes all around. Best to have an experienced enthusiast help you... and there should be a few around your area. Start a separate thread asking for help and also allocate a few pennies for a GOOD Pizza and a few six packs of Sarsaparilla...



2. A good friend of mine that recently passed and I did not agree with this, but IMHO, I still contend it really makes no difference. A single reservoir with a "Y" output will work just fine but just not be able to separate which end, front or rear, is using more fluid. Mr. Stich may still have some reservoirs left and his BMW or Mercedes reservoir modifications work extremely well. Here are a few fotos of my installation:





Find him in the FS&W section or page him here...

3. For the trans... I had one that was a real mess with terrible grinds into 3rd. I bit the bullet and was pleasantly surprised at my LIQUID overhaul. FOUR QUARTS of REDLINE MTL and about 200 miles and what a GREAT improvement. Google it online and ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES or you will be sorry! You will be X-static with the results. Search for testimonials here if you must...

Soooooo... HTHs...

Yup

What Papa Tony posted: Jeff's kit is an absolute no-brainer:
http://xwebforums.com/forum/index.php?threads/25878/

The calipers ride on these block/sliders/wedges. They often seize up, I had to pound some out when I got my car, you need to take the calipers off, thus these wedges out, clean them and lube them, I smear antisieze on mine. Just plan on doing as described above; remove all four wheels, take off the calipers, looking for signs of fluid, clean and lube the wedges, reassemble and see what the the brakes do. You'll likely have to replace/rebuild one or all of the calipers, you should do the rubber hoses too, as mentioned. None of this is very hard but the rear calipers are complicated by the emergency brake cable mechanism so rebuilding those is a pain, better to just replace those, IMHO. Sometimes the bleed screws seize up on the calipers too. I had one where I tried so hard to get it out, it snapped right off. I just replaced the caliper. They were only about $40 a piece at the time, bit harder to come by at that price now I guess.