DeTomaso Mailing List: April 2000, Message #249

Hi all,

I'm writing from my parents computer, where my shop happens to be located.  : )

Finally, got done with the brakes on the Pantera.

Went to Napa early today.  We went through the basic silouettes and based on
measurements came up with a couple of good possibilites.  We found one that
looked pretty good, but would require me to hack it up to match the stock
outline.  Not a big deal.

Get to the shop and start in.  I have lots of good photos that will be coming
out next week on this.  Took an old pad, scribed it's outline and made all the
first cuts with a hacksaw.  Did all clean up work with a die-grinder and file.
Okay, pads not a problem at this point.  We are good to continue.

Took off the drivers side flexible line to the caliper.  Note:  The drivers side
is the side that kept sticking on me, so bad in fact, that's what toasted the
pads on that side.  Okay, so I pull the fluid bolt out and it is really stuck,
stuck with black gooey sticky yucky junky crap.  I have no idea what this stuff
was.  I ask Shelley to push on the brakes, and it pushes this half inch long
plug of goo out the end of the hose.  Hmmmm, I guess this is what was causing my
problem.  So at this point, it's time to flush the whole system.

Cracked all the lines, pumped till the master cylinder was dry, then removed the
reseviour, and took the air hose and blew the last residues out the lines.  Took
about almost everything else and made sure we had good air flow to all four
wheels.  Then cleaned the res, real good and re-installed it to the master.

Now, not wanting to re-use the old calipers until I had a chance to look them
over, I took the parts from Rick Moseley and installed them instead.  These were
a set of stock calipers that were rebuilt in the last couple of years.  They
moved really well under hand control so I was very satisified with them.  I
installed them on each side of the front, with the pads, and proceeded to
install new fluid in the system.

Oh, did I mention that while I had all the bleeders open, I filled the master
cylinder?  Well, I did, and gravity did wonders.  The whole system was just
about bled by the time I got the front calipers installed.  We did some power
bleeding with a person in the drivers seat : ) and me at the wheels.  After a
couple of rounds around the car with no more air coming out anywhere, I figure
the system is good to go.  Yes, I was constantly re-filling the master, picked
up a gallon at Napa of DOT3 while I was there.  : )

So now... I get a lot of pedal, when the car is running, so I now know for sure
the power booster is working, and what do you know.... all four wheels stop and
nobody pulls.  Boy this sure is nice.

I have no idea what was plugging the lines, but I have to figure the fluid has
got to be at least a decade old, and the resevoir had a lot of black gunk in it
as well.  All better now though, and I'm a happy camper.

Thank go to Rick Moseley for selling me the brake parts, by the way Rick, I
didn't use the new master or the rotors.  Mine are in pretty good shape still,
so I'll keep using them.

Okay, photos later.  : )

Asa Jay