We’re back to working on customer cars again this week as the car show season is creeping up on us slowly but surely. The Mustang Maniac car park has started to see the cars being dusted of for the nice weather and getting a few little pre show car season TLC.

Customer Cars

A customer had purchased one of our Leed Brake Conversion kits and wanted to fit it themselves as their mate, “knew what they were doing”. We generally tend to hold a work slot open for people that pop in to buy these kits. The reason being that the customer tends to be near enough to bring the car in if needed to complete the job. We had a feeling about this one, and that it would be back. Needless to say the car was indeed booked in with us to have the conversion problems sorted out by us. We have had no problems with the kits when we fit them. The ‘problems’ are usually down to incorrect installations or some modification need from previous work.

As we took the car in we were also told that the rear brakes were now binding which was something else we needed to look at. On initial inspection there was some fundamental errors on their project, some dangerous things along with issues with some previous work. In short, we needed to have proper look around and basically start again with the brake kit.

Firstly the pipework was replaced at the rear, as it wasn’t great and looked a bit of mess. Yogi soon took those lines off and redone them.

The rear brake hose was still in place from the single exhaust system, it should have been replaced for a dual exhaust system part. The correct part would stop the hose pressing against the hot exhaust as we found here. We’re pretty sure we don’t need to spell out the problems relating to this scenario.

The master cylinder was bolted in place fine, but the brake push rod was the wrong size and length. This restricted the return travel of the brake pedal which was a major contributor to the rear brakes binding problem.

The rear brakes sets had seen better days, they now benefit from a new pair of slave cylinders, shoes and hardware. The old setups on the left and the new ones on the right for comparisons.

At the front the pipework was sort of ok and not leaking. However they did look rather busy and awkward around the proportioning valve. These brake lines will also be replaced when Yogi gets to it with his signature install.

Some of the hardware will need to be replaced even though it was new as the threads were stripped. How they managed to strip the treads on some new robust bolts is quite worrying, especially anywhere near brakes.

On some of the other bolts thread locker wasn’t applied when it really should have been.

The front brake pads themselves were fitted without any copper slip grease.

Once all the new brake lines are in place the bleeding process will have to start all over again and re-check for leaks on the kit to make sure there is no damage from the previous fitting.

The moral of the story here is simple; for the sake of a few hours labour it would take for us to fit the kit, it will save you replacing parts of the kit again, above all it will be done properly. Obviously the choice is yours, but brakes are the most important safety factor on a car. Don’t take chances!

WebShop

We have restoked our hardware wall with various brands and some of our own, everything from gaskets to distributor weights, or carburettor jets to instrument panel voltage regulators.

WE would like to point out again that we do not have a dedicated phone line to our offices. The reason being as we have said before we get people call us up, ask us lots of questions on how to do something and which parts they need. Those people then go on to order their parts elsewhere. I mean do you ring up companies like Ikea to ask how to screw a shelf on a wall? If you need to contact us please email us at sales@mustangmaniac.co.uk and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Adam will be on holiday this week so he will have little if any access to his emails.

Stay Safe & Take Care!