For the last week or so, I have been rebuilding the master cyl in my
Magnette (same as an MGA 1500). The one in the car had been sitting
for 30 years, and based on my experience with the slave and wheel
cylinders, I decided to use the one from the parts car. I carefully
disassembled and soaked everything in cleaner. Got to be reassembly
time and found that the new cyl was missing the backflow valve on the
brake side. Much cursing, soaking, pulling later, I had managed to
get the pistons out of the original master and retreive the backflow
valve. I'll re-assemble tonight.
Now that I've gone through the trouble, I am starting to wonder why. I
know what the valve does, i.e. prevents fluid from running back into
the master cylinder from the brake lines, but I wonder why you would
want such a thing on a car with drum brakes. The receipts on the parts
car show that the brakes were rebuilt shortly before it was scrapped
in '81. Whoever rebuilt the master cylinder felt this valve wasn't too
important. Maybe that's why the car was scrapped, though. Anybody got
an idea why this thing is there?
Just curious,
Jay
|