Good advice Joe...while at TRF's Summer Party, my wife and daughter were
competing in the Gymkanna in her Spit. Afterwards, she mentioned that the
brakes seemed to have changed in the middle of her second run...the pedal
going further to the floor without much stopping power. Back at TRF we
checked and found that the left rear hose had worn through the braided
stainless and was slowly dripping DOT5 out on the ground.
Kudos to Charles and his staff here...late Saturday afternoon, the TRF
staff were able to find a replacement (rubber) hose, installed it, tied the
right rear hose up out of the way (it was rubbing too, but not as badly!),
bled the system, and had us on our way to the Drive-In and dinner. Without
them, we would not have been able to get the car home to Canada until other
arrangements could have been made...Thank You Roadster Factory!
The hoses were all new, braided stainless and the rear hoses had lots of
clearance when installed (on axle stands). However, when the car was
sitting on the ground, there was contact against the axles.
Keith Stewart
----------
> From: Joe Curry <spitlist@gte.net>
> To: Spitfire Mail List <spitfires@autox.team.net>
> Subject: Spitfire Dealer Service Notices
> Date: Wednesday, August 19, 1998 11:55 PM
>
> Yesterday I was over at a friend's house and we were looking through an
> old notebook of Triumph Factory Service Notices for dealers.
>
> As he read off the headings (I left my glasses at home so he was reading
> for both of us) I stopped him when he got to one that was titled,
> "Spitfire Rear Brake Hoses". I said, "Wait, let see if I can guess what
> it says." My theory was it referred to the tendency of the rear hoses
> to rub against the axle shafts and wear the hoses, causing a very unsafe
> condition. Sure enough, I was correct.
>
> The notice calls for each car that is in the shop for any service to
> have the rear hoses checked for flat spots caused by wear. Then with
> the suspension in both up and down extremes check for clearance from the
> shaft. Improper clearance is to be corrected by adjusting the attaching
> points of the hose brackets.
>
> I noticed some time ago that both mine and my sons Spits exhibited the
> problem. I corrected mine by replacing the hoses with braided stainless
> ones and on my son's car by taking some of the springs from a pair of
> front hoses and mounting them on the rear hoses. That way, if the hose
> tries to contact the axle, the spring will rub and not the rubber hose.
>
> But the real purpose of this message is to have everybody check those
> hoses at the first opportunity.
>
> Regards,
> Joe Curry
> --
> "If you can't excel with talent, triumph with effort."
>
> -- Dave Weinbaum in National Enquirer
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