Fan belts and no brakes
Well, I knew there would be more to test and possibly repair once the engine was running. Took it around the block and it overheated and the alternator fan belt was chewed up a bit. So possibly the belt was too loose. As well, just as important, it had almost no brakes at all - barely slowed down while pushing hard on the brake pedal. Lastly, the parking brake hose is leaking brake fluid.
So, we now have a few more tasks:
Replace the alternator fan belt
Check the tension on all the belts
Check the thermostat and research the overheating
Flush the brake fluid and bleed the system
Pull apart and try to repair the parking brake
Fan Belt
This is a custom car, so nothing is stock. The engine compartment looks beautiful, and that’s because there are custom panels covering everything, and all of the tolerances are very close. In order to remove a fan belt, I need to remove the mesh cover from the back of the radiator. In order to remove the mesh cover, I need to remove the top cover over the radiator. In order to remove the radiator cover, I have to remove the hood, because it is held up with struts connected to the radiator cover. The good news is I feel like I know a lot more about how it’s all put together. Anyway, got the belt replaced and checked tensions.
The way all the sheet metal fits together under the covers is so nicely done!
Overheating
Pulled apart the small chrome coolant manifold bolted to the front of the engine. Removed the thermostat and tested it in a pot of boiling water. It worked fine and opened around 160 degrees as designed. It closed again once the water cooled. So reinstalled that with new gasket material. While checking all of this, I noticed the radiator expansion tank cap seemed a bit loose. Now I’m second guessing if I put it completely on when I checked the coolant level before the first start. As with many caps, there is an initial detent, then push down and turn more for the final detent. Well fast forward, and it has not overheated since.
All put back together and idling great now.
No brakes
My first thought was to bleed the brakes and see how that goes. I recall discussing with the builder, Craig Wick, over the phone that the car has DOT5 silicone brake fluid. This is important because it does not mix with the more common DOT3, DOT4, or DOT5.1 which are glycol based fluids. So just to double check, I tested some of the fluid in the reservoirs by putting some in a glass along with water. If it does not mix (like oil and water), then it’s DOT5. Well, it mixed - so something happened to the brake fluid over those years. Either it was replaced, missed with other types of fluid, or somehow went bad. I decided to get compressor driven vacuum brake bleeder and flush out the entire system, with about a gallon of DOT5.
The car has two master cylinders for the brakes - one for the front and one for the rear. This allows adjusting the brake bias, like a race car. The rear master cylinder and calipers would bleed easily, but the fronts would not budge. I could get barely any fluid out of the front calipers, and the fluid level in the reservoir would not go down. I started looking at the pedal box with the two master cylinders and noticed the bias bar was pretty straight, meaning the front and rear brakes were getting the same amount of pressure. The pedal also did not push down much at all. So reading up on bias bars, I adjusted it more towards the front brakes, and all of a sudden I could get the front brakes to bleed. I still need to play with the bias bar adjustment a bit, but the brakes now work pretty well.
Parking brake leaking
I noticed brake fluid dripping from the parking brake caliper from the first day. The car has a very interesting and cool parking brake. It is a rotor that is attached to the rear of the drive shaft right in front of the rear end. There is a small hydraulic caliper on it, with a line leading to a small master cylinder located inside the quarter panel behind the driver’s seat. Under the dash is your typical cable driven pull handle, which then attaches to the hydraulic master cylinder.
I took apart the caliper and hoses and put it back together. Was able to bleed the system and got it working well, but there is still a tiny drip every few days. The drops seem to be coming from the crimped end of the brake line. I have a new braided stainless steel line on order and will replace it, which should solve the problem.
