Folks,
I helped John on bleeding the brakes on his 42. Normally this would be pretty straight forward Most of us have done it at some point in our adventures with old cars.
So I am off playing with something else and hear John uttering not great things from under the mid section of the car. A dreaded leak in one of the line joints. Left rear line at the Tee joint (brass) which was new. We tried tightening several times. Nope not going to fix the leak! Something was wrong with the sealing surface of the flared steel line or the brass tapered sealing surface or both!
This type of thing has been just about normal for what ever portion of these projects John or I touch. One step forward, one back. We look, evaluate, talk, discuss, and take corrective action.
In this case John removed the line to the wheel cylinder. We got a magnified light and looked at the inside of the flare. Took a small tapered stone in a drill and smoothed and tapered the inside to smooth it. He then took the new brass tee out of the car to view it on the bench too. It also did not look great. So he cleaned up the 80 year old original brass "Tee" , installed it under the car and plugged in the lines. NO leaks!
We proceeded to bleed the brakes with no issues. We win!
The 42 is now ready to hit the road next spring. By the way one section of the old lines was weeping just a little. A indication that the 80 year old lines were in need of replacement!
Regards,
Chris
