1987 Renault GTA :: Gone to a new home

[PhilA]

7/16" AF maybe?

Nope, slightly bigger. I didn't have much choice but to use the 12mm open ring. It's hex so didn't chew the unions up and undid everything ok.

[PhilA]

So, all the unions cracked off, master cylinder pulled off out of the way and what is henceforth to be known as That Damn Valve was removed.

 

 

At least the brake pipes moved enough to allow it to be removed fairly easily.

 

 

Liberated the end cap of the shuttle valve. Grimy. Not good.

 

 

There is the end of the shuttle. It's meant to be in the middle. Had to hammer it out...

 

 

Ew.

 

 

Cleaned it up a bit, the old brake fluid was solid.

 

 

Bought a can of brake cleaner, going to thoroughly clean it out but the shuttle valve now moves. Definitely an improvement. The seals are still good though...

 

Phil

[PhilA]

All apart, all cleaned.

 

 

Back together now, needs to be bled.

 

Definitely better. It was grimy inside.

 

Phil

[vulgalour]

Good work.  That looked horrible.

[PhilA]

"Do not dismantle", psh

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Son of a gun. Bled the brakes, but pressing brake pedal got half travel.

 

Ultimately that's no good.

 

Had a listen and there's a definitive clunk at the end of the master cylinder when brakes depressed.

 

Typically ramps at work broke, had to bodge the safety release to get the thing to come down to the ground.

 

Refitted old master cylinder, shall get that bled up. Work got in the way this afternoon, but I bought a MityVac pump to draw the fluid through the system and bleed it out.

 

Updates to follow

 

 

Phil

[PhilA]

I didn't fix anything else yet. It still hasn't moved much. I've been mowing round it mostly.

 

 

Did get a new mirror from a guy in Canada. Old one there for comparison, the silver had fallen off due to the humidity.

 

 

Important things, like.

 

 

--Phil

[Asimo]

That's why it is worth changing brake fluid  folks!

 

20/10 for sticking with this car and making such a good thread out of your trials and tribulations. 

[Noel Tidybeard]

why is Murray Walker taking fotos in your renner?

[PhilA]

Just in case it was the bias valve all along, I put the old master cylinder back on.

 

That didn't work, I think it's completely shafted. Brakes suck.

 

Also, pissed off because the CV boot I just changed is split wide open.

 

What is it with the quality of rubber parts being complete tosh these days?

 

I'm not very happy about that.

 

 

Phil

[PhilA]

 Moved the car, it's been parked up gathering pine sap and needles off the neighbor's tree.

 

 

On the up-side the pipe got delivered for the ramp Friday afternoon. Down-side it's locked in the warehouse all weekend at work.

 

Put the battery on charge, it had gone flat. Not doing too much right now, we are ok but HQ is currently inundated and beginning to flood with high waters due to torrential rain from a storm system that's stalled and is dumping rain in a rather heavy and localized fashion.

 

--Phil

[PhilA]

Okay so, where were we? That's right, the Renault is broken.

 

Did a bit more reading this morning and stumbled upon a post about brakes on a Ford Explorer forum, of all places.

 

It described exactly the symptoms I have, and pointed at the brake booster servo being bad.

 

So, I pulled out the MityVac and started pumping like blazes.

 

 

Pumped it up to 20"Hg and it stayed there quite happily. Pressed on pedal and whush, there goes the vacuum to zero. Press again and start creating a positive pressure in the gauge.

 

New brake booster time.

 

Phil

[DeeJay]

Good to see you've found the cause relatively easily.

[PhilA]

Well, the problems were manifesting as all sorts of other issues- what got me was the booster wasn't leaking when I pumped it down.

 

It only leaks when you get a couple inches of pedal travel.

 

Then it's gone. That's why it then goes feels like it's gone solid. I started up the engine with the pedal pushed down and it idled like crap until I let go, so yeah, it's a fairly bad leak.

 

--Phil

[PhilA]

What the heck. It's being French.

 

 

Random pinhole in heater coolant return hose.

 

At least I now know where the coolant was going.

 

Phil

[tooSavvy]

GR8.9 thredd M8

 

.... reckon buying a 25yr old Toyyo wasn't a bad decision by me, then? lol

 

Keep It Up

 

 

TS

[Honey Badger]

Top quality thread Phil, keep the updates coming.

[somewhatfoolish]

Awe-inspiring persistence in the face of shite car manufacture and rubbish assembly; you are an autoshite WINNAR. Bonus shite points for knitting your own diagnostic electrickery, I'd have thrown it away and fitted a megasquirt or summat*.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*I wouldn't really, I don't have the patience so it would have been bridged before you can say jack robinson.

[PhilA]

It does get fixed, periodically. The clock has taken to displaying random not-quite-digits, so that's annoyingly French.

 

I just ordered a new (rebuilt) brake booster servo and a seal kit for the power steering pump, only because $8 for seals is cheaper than $5 a pop for a quart of fluid that it wazzes all over the floor in about 2 days

 

Hopefully that lot will be in by Tuesday.

 

--Phil

[PhilA]

Had to cut the pipe off for the heater return line.

 

 

Positive side of things, the coolant looks clean.

 

 

Looks like there's a proper manufacturing flaw, there's 2 pinholes along the length.

 

 

I'm going to bring that to the auto parts store to see if they have a piece that's about that shape.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

 

Damnit. I don't want to have to take the dash out to make the clock read anything other than nonsense, especially as it was working just fine before.

 

Phil

[vulgalour]

I admire your perseverance with this ungrateful old heap.

[PhilA]

It's like a Jaguar. Fun when it works.

 

Auto Zone came through with a piece of adequate* hose.

 

 

I'll get that cut to length and fitted in probably tomorrow. By the time I got home it occurred to me that I probably don't have enough coolant to refill what fell out.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Cut the new pipe to length. Fits nicely and doesn't leak.

 

 

Vulgalour, you are correct. It's an ungrateful heap. It has again proven this by possibly springing a hole in its radiator.

 

 

It's not bad if it is, and it's also a shame because the rest of the rad is in good shape. Hopefully it's just from where I was bleeding the thing. Going to let it dry out and run it again to see if the wet comes back.

 

Phil

[vulgalour]

Looks like you've got one of those holes that moves around the car.  Damned nuisance to fix.

[PhilA]

Haha yes. I bought some new coolant also. The existing stuff looks OK but it's gathering rusty dirt.

 

The oil, on the other hand is cleaning up all the resinous muck from the new cylinder head nicely. With new bearings I want all that greb out of there. Diesel oil ftw.

 

Today

 

Back a couple thousand miles ago

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Positive note, the mark on the radiator appeared to be at some point where I've spilled oil.

 

I don't know how, but I'll take that over a new radiator.

 

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Seal kit for the pump arrived. Weather's beautiful. I'm sick with some sort of cold that's going around.

 

Brake booster servo is packaged up and had a shipping label stuck on it this morning. It's in California right now. The seals were ordered Friday afternoon from New York and were here by yesterday afternoon, that's pretty good going.

 

Gotta pull the battery, battery tray, aircon compressor and alternator complete with bracketry out in order to liberate the PAS pump. Fun times. At least access down that side of the engine isn't too bad.

 

 

--Phil

[DeeJay]

Like is for the parts, (not for the cold or work involved in fitting parts.)

[PhilA]

Brake booster is in Winslow, Arizona.

 

I couldn't think of any lyrics to write.

 

 

Phil