> Since then, the brake pedal tends to stick part way up.
The pedal return spring should be strong enough to lift the pedal all the way
up, even if the MC doesn't return. Sounds to me like your return spring is weak
or missing, or the pivot is binding. The pivot should get a drop of oil once in
a great while but it seems most people don't do this.
> Now I'm thinking that the brake cleaner may have messed up something in the
> brake restrictor valve. The part appears to be NLA.
>
> My questions:
>
> 1) Is this something that can be refurbished or replaced with a similar part
> from another car?
It can certainly be disassembled and cleaned.
> 2) Is the valve necessary? Rimmer shows it as not always being fitted.
It wasn't fitted to the first 7,000 or so cars with front discs (TR3), then was
discontinued sometime during TR4A production. AFAIK all TR3A/3B/4 had it.
Might be that the softer suspension of the IRS cars reduced the flexing of the
front spindles, I don't know. Or it may have just been a response to what I
understand was a fairly constant stream of complaints about the brakes dragging
all the time.
Removing the valve entirely will cause your solid lines not to fit, but it's not
absolutely essential otherwise. The approach I took was to remove the plunger
and spring from inside the valve, then put the valve body back into place.
You should be warned that you may experience low brake pedal after "spirited"
driving ... this is what the valve was supposed to prevent. A quick pump will
bring back the pedal and allow you to stop. I never found it to be a problem on
my TR3A (which I did sometimes drive quite hard, we have some lovely twisty
mountain roads around here) but it might be upsetting if you weren't expecting
it.
Randall
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