Weekend Work

Seems like the only time I get to go out to the garage nowadays is Sunday afternoons. Yesterday, I went out right after lunch and fired up two to the kerosene heaters. Victoria was planning on joining me when she got home from her Girls Scouts’ meeting, so I decided to get a jump on her car’s brake bleeding project. With the GUP fitting I got from the Corvair Ranch in hand, I carefully threaded on the end of the new brake line and snugged it down. After poking the other end of the fitting through the hole in the firewall, I installed the retaining nut followed by the brake line from the master cylinder. The system was now closed, so I refilled the reservoir with fresh brake fluid and began to slowly pump the pedal with the left rear wheel cylinder bleeder opened and the end of the hose in brake fluid. A few dozen pumps later, I checked fluid level and topped it off. More pumping and topping followed by more pumping and topping. At that point, I closed off the bleeder and pumped the pedal a few times – resistance before hitting the floor – yah! Now I could check for leaks and didn’t see any. Victoria was home and with her pumping and checking the reservoir we proceeded to bleed the system. After a few cycles of pump, pump, hold, bleed she saw fluid drops on the floor by her feet. I cranked down on two of the fittings and we continued. A few more cycles later, I discovered a fresh fluid puddle under the car. The connection of the new brake line into the rear junction block wasn’t tight enough. Torqued that fitting and twenty minutes later bleeding was complete. The pedal is nice and high, so I’m confident we’ve good-to-go um stop.

We then spread cardboard out on the floor and shuffled our bodies under Glinda to reinstall the air duct and tunnel covers. That all went uneventfully, and by then it was getting to be dinner time so Victoria went inside while I installed the new flex hose at the end of the air duct. What was supposed to be an easy install turned out to require a blood sacrifice to the Corvair gods. Nothing stitchable, but still a little messy. I was, however, successful in getting the hose in place and properly clamped.

Next up for Glinda is a drive around the block. In order for that to happen, I need to figure out what I’m going to do next with my LMs. Part of that plan will be dealing with three LMs and only two sets of tires.