The Flood Survivor - 82 X1/9 Build

[Clatter]

Still can’t believe how pretty and clean all the parts are on your car!

Moly grease like used on CVs has great extreme pressure resistance and decent with occasional dirt,
But it’s not necessarily compatible with plastic bushings.
I ended up finding this ‘red grease’ that’s for farm equipment and whatnot - compatible with plastic bushes and dirty conditions.
Works on throwout stuff for me.

As for cylinders,
Tearing them down and inspecting the bores will tell the story.
Maybe they aren’t scratched up, or will clean up with a hone?
Not every cylinder needs sleeved.
An Italian cylinder in good shape and an NOS kit should be master nirvana, right?

Something about new master assemblies or even kits, is that they might be sitting for many years before sale and become dry/brittle.

 

[Clatter]

Another idea..
I’ve had a couple of instances where i pulled a cylinder apart and cleaned it up.
Soaking the rubber o-rings and seals in clean new brake fluid softened them up and made them pliable again.
Sometimes, they might even swell a bit from the newer/different fluid.
If the rubber parts end up soft, pliable and clean, it can all go back together.
Not that this is ideal,
But if you can’t get better kits or cylinders it can work.
And the price is right..

 

[KBabcock]

Pedal box is in good shape compared to mine which is an 85 and was not in a flood. Great starting point with this car.

 

[KBabcock]

The brakes did "work" but they felt exceedingly bad. The master is weeping fluid out of seals and has been for some time.

Given that the car hasnt been driven or worked on in so long the last place i want to take the easy path is on the brakes, $50 for a new master feels like money well spent. I would prefer to just buy the seals and rebuild it myself but i havent found any good feedback on here that is successful with the seals commonly available. One thing is for sure, the overkill approach is definitely a long ways down the road if ever!

Give Matt a call at Midwest Bayless to see if he has any or can give you insight into rebuild kits. He is a great parts and knowledge resource.

 

[kmead]

Now on to the task everyone loves to hate, pedal box. With the interior completely stripped removal was a doddle, flair nuts all backed out with ease and i cut the soft lines as i already have bought MWB replacement.

I am left a bit perplexed about the best solution, this has sat undriven for 38 years and without a doubt the seals are spent. Reading through the many threads on this topic my understanding is that there are no reliable aftermarket replacement master cylinders, the available seals do not give a robust rebuild and the only good solution is the amazing @Rupunzell re-engineered overhaul. The last on the list is a little out of scope right now so I am thinking i should just buy a pair of Beck Arnley replacements and retain the originals for the thorough overhaul down the line. Thoughts?

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Keep the OE units, the interior components are likely better than the newer replacement parts. Bernice has a good comparison in one of her threads of the differences. I wish I had kept my OE ones when I replaced them pre-emptively.

 

[halr75]

After almost stripping one of the flair nuts trying to disassemble with Harbor Freight flair nut wrenches i have paused the pedal box disassebly pending arrival of Irwin lock nut wrench. In the meantime i thought i would get one with some more of the prep and tidy up work so got the rear passanger caliper stripped down and tidied up. All the original rubber was still in great shape but i figure better safe than sorry on brakes! New SS braided lines going as well.

Goes without saying that the xweb guide was invaluable! https://xwebforums.com/wiki/images/2/23/Rear_Caliper_Rebuild_rev4.pdf

Question on lubrication:

• For packing the handbrake lever mechanism - high temp bearing grease
• For belville washers and adjustment thread - same?
• for main seal - brake fluid?
• for dust sheild - nothing?
• for threads on brake line - silcone brake grease?

 

[Tom Ginefra]

Question on lubrication:

• For packing the handbrake lever mechanism - high temp bearing grease Yes and lots of it
• For belville washers and adjustment thread - same? Yes, but you don't need to go overboard here.
• for main seal - brake fluid? Yes. After inserting seal dry, you can apply a light coat of brake fluid to the inner seal surface. *
  * Also not a bad idea to apply a light coat to the outside of the piston before assembly, as well.
• for dust sheild - nothing? You should be able to get away with nothing here.
• for threads on brake line - silcone brake grease? I use a light application of anti seize paste

 

[Tom Ginefra]

If you have any difficulty getting past the seal, as you screw on the piston... double check to make sure you have a nice smooth radius on the back edge of the piston. I re-profiled mine and polished them with a fine emery cloth to make sure the edges were well rounded and very smooth. Went in like butter.

 

[halr75]

Not a lot done today, got the driver rear caliper stripped cleaned and bagged ready for reassembly when the time is right.

Pulled the clutch and brake reservoirs and lines. All look pretty good but have found the one site of rust so far in the scuttle. All looks pretty superficial. I did take some pics of some catalogs and a mileage notebook from the po that were in the frunk interesting snapshot from around 1990.

 

[Mark_Toro]

Dang - I remember ordering parts from that IAP catalog. I must be old.

 

[halr75]

Deck cleaned up today and pedal box disassembled (all but one very stubborn flare nut!). Head work tomorrow!

 

[Knubspud]

I have always used replacement cylinders with no ill effects. I am careful with initial bleeding not to pump a dry cylinder endlessly (kinked
reservoir hoses are easy to do!), or install anything hydraulic years before the car sees any road use. My cars usually see road use at least a couple of times per week, year round, and I rarely keep an X more than 2 or 3 years so I can't comment on longevity beyond that. All vehicles are designed to be regularly driven, and inactivity is the kiss of death, especially for hydraulic circuits.

Agreed. the masters that I bought from Midwest are working great.

 

[halr75]

Agreed. the masters that I bought from Midwest are working great.

Was going to recondition the OEM but I’ll be damned if I can get that last stubborn flair off. Will take it to a machine shop buddy as a last resort but might be tribute to the classic car gods…

 

[halr75]

Heads cleaning up well. Found evidence of some porting but am told by the PO that it must be factory.

I discovered a couple of small nicks in the gasket zone have me wondering if it needs a skim. Thoughts?!

 

[Steve Thomas]

hmmm. Those have to have been there ex-factory? I would have another think once the surface is cleaned up to the point you could install it. "skimming" the head will have knock on effects that complicate matters and should be avoided unless absolutely required.

 

[EricH]

I discovered a couple of small nicks in the gasket zone have me wondering if it needs a skim. Thoughts?!

last picture: is that a crack at the edge of the compression chamber?

 

[halr75]

last picture: is that a crack at the edge of the compression chamber?

Nope, just a ding/cut that is holding dirt.

 

[Mark_Toro]

I think you are asking a lot of the gasket to seal those nicks. If it was my decision, I'd get it surfaced. That said, I've done a lot of jobs half way that have turned out successful.

 

[halr75]

Good progress this weekend (for me - gotta balance the honey do list!). Pedal box rebuilt and plan formulated for heads.

I had wanted to save what ever parts were rebuildable on the car bot for cost and originality but in the end the brake master was a no go. Bore looked impeccable but I could not for the life of me get the flat nut on the medium jumper to brake free. Stripped the sh1t out of it trying even with heat/penetrant/irwin clamping wrench etc. so bought an MWB replacement and a used medium jumper. The MWB seals also seemed to fit the clutch master perfectly and with some DOT 4 to lubricate the whole thing went back together easily.

I also decided on a path for my nicked head. I can only just feel it with my nail which puts it right around the 5 thou or less mark, 0.125mm. Please correct me if I am wrong here but from my calcs I would need to alter the stack by 1.5mm to cause 1 degree of cam error. I could do a .25mm skim on the head, hope it tidies up the nick and use a regular HG or take more and use the thicker gasket sold on Oberts and still be with margin of error…

We have a machine shop at work so might just be able to have it done as a favor.

Anyways, slows things a little as I head to LA tomorrow for a Trade show (if anyone is going to MDM/ATX west show in Anaheim stop in and say hi - Booth 3431 Andrews Cooper).

 

[fiatrn]

You could buy an adjustable cam wheel and then not worry about how much resurfacing the head needs.