I had the tires pulled off the rims and started wire
brushing and sand blasting the rims. That was a dirty job, but Ive got them clean and now
primed. Ill get a couple good coats of paint and let them sit a week or two before I
remount the tires.
My master brake cylinder was frozen solid- no pedal movement at all. I found a part number on the Yahoo Group and tried my local parts store, but they were no help, without a car make and model number said they could not find a part. I tried the number on Google and found it on Amazon.com. I didnt know they sold car parts!
When it arrived it was slightly different, lacking a tapped hole for the brake light switch. It was a simple job in the milling machine to add the hole and trim one of the mounting ears a bit to get the cylinder in. I knew I should relace all the brake lines, but ever the optimist I filled the cylinder and pumped the pedal- big squirt of brake fluid all over the front pan.
After a call to my buddy Roland, a master mechanic for many years, he told me what I knew had to happen- rip out all the old lines and hoses. So I stripped it all out, measured everything and called Rollie with the list. He ordered it all for me and I had the whole box of parts, including a tubing bender and flare tool in 4 days.
The front brake calipers and the bleeded valves were frozen solid. I was afraid of breaking the bleeder so I put it into the lathe 6 jaw chuck to get a solid grip all around it, then heated it a bit with the torch and it came out OK. To get the pistons out I took an old flare nut, drilled it out and tapped it 1/4-28, then screwed a Zerk fitting into it. I put that into the caliper, pumped it up with the grease gun and the piston slid out nice and clean. I cleaned up the parts and ran a tap into the threads to clear them. I will need to find, or make, new springs and an O-ring.
Once I got the back brakes apart I was able to work on the emergency brake cable
and got it free and sliding well. The threaded adjuster part was badly rusted so I made
a new one of stainless steel.
I have now replaced all the brake lines, and remounted the tires. Here is a photo of the new master brake cylinder and its connections.
A photo of the brake lines under the cylinder, also the steering gear box, which shows some signs of oil leaks, but it turns freely, so I think I'll leave it for now. The new brake lines were not an exact fit. The end fittings use an E-clip to hold them in place, and are grooved to fit a sheet metal bracket. The Citicar has an aluminum frame and the brackets are formed from 1/8" thick aluminum angle, welded to the frame. I had to widen the groove about .050 to fit the thicker brackets. There was plentry of material so it was a simple lathe job.
Here is the front brakes with the clean calipers, the new brake lines and the re-painted wheels.
At this point the brakes are completely finished, the wheels are back on, and its time to turn to electrical work.