Oil Leak

I spent a good part of today changing the equaliser over on the parking brake and adjusting it. In the way that old cars have of repaying expenditure and time spent by developing further and more esoteric faults, the car decided now would be a good time to pump most of the contents of the sump onto the ground.

It was at this point that it became apparent that the RHD version of the oil pump has been modified. I'm pretty sure this was done because the steering box was in the way of the oil filter. The RHD car has a remote filter fed by two hoses and mounted on a bracket above the alternator. One of the hoses has sprung a leak so I suspect it'll be off to the '67 again to plunder hoses for the 68.

Even more on Brakes

Since I haven't finished the brake pipework yet, I've been moving the car around using the parking brake. This isn't that easy since it's one of those weird American style ones with a pedal and a release lever.

When I was stuck on the main braking system, I thought I'd adjust the parking brake. It took a while, but I got it to a point where both wheels could be locked and the car wouldn't move on the parking brake - great - or so I thought.

On returning to it, the parking brake had jammed on. Even releasing it, it applies itself when it feels like it - especially in reverse.

Time for a more detailed investigation.

The first thing I found was that the 68 was missing the return spring. The photos show the one I stole from the '67.

The second thing was that the equaliser bar was fitted the wrong way round - this means the left hand brake will operate way before the right hand and adjusting the cable tight enough to get the right hand one working leads to binding on the right hand side. I suspected this after consulting the workshop manual and confirmed it by checking on my new best friend, the unmessed with '67.