Moss Motors, Ltd

motorbill,

The long drawn out saga of the right brake caliper may be ended. Because I have installed two new right front brake calipers on the car in about 6 months, I was reluctant to admit that they were both defective. But I gave in to those wiser than myself and obtained a third brake caliper. After installing it today, I took it out for a short test drive. So far, there is no sign of the binding that had been present in the last two installs. I will be taking it out tomorrow for a much longer test drive and will let all know what the status is.

zach

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT'S BACK!!

I replaced the right front caliper almost 1,000 miles ago and it has been working with no problem whatsoever. Today, I left work and started the 35 mile drive home. I noticed a slight pull to the right after going about a mile and a half. The farther into the drive I went, the worse it got. Until when I was about a mile from home, it was grabbing SO bad that the wheel just locked up completely. Once I take my foot off the pedal, it releases and I can drive. But, it locks up whenever I brake.

I've decided to take it to a local shop and have it checked out. I'm FRUSTRATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

zach

Noooooooo!

So sorry to hear you're still having trouble zach.

Ed

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I want my MGB

zach,

I don't know what to say. I'm afraid this is one mystery I may not be able to solve without having the car physically present. What is particularly irksome is that several times you seem to have solved the problem, only for it to eventually return. Brake problems like this are virtually always either there or not there. DRAT!  Something is being overlooked, and I'm not sure it's even in the right front brake, or for that matter, in the brake system at all. I'm not forgetting about this, zach, Geez, at this point I can't forget it. It's haunting me. Please don't give up. It has a cause. It will be found.

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Motorbill
From Lola to Land Rover, If it's British and has wheels, it's likely I've bloodied me knuckles thereupon

zach,

 

I got to ask , are you using new pads and did you have the rotors turned? The next is to look for a crack in the rotor or just for grins put the left on the right / right on the left. Looks like you have covered the rest of the system.

After a thorough check of the brake system by a local technician, he declared that everything checked out okay and he can't figure what the heck the problem is!!! Because he couldn't find anything wrong, he didn't charge me; which I thought was nice. He did suggest that the problem might be in the left caliper, rather than the right and suggested that I replace it. I took the MG home and headed back to town to the local Car Quest auto parts store in my trusty Vanagon, and on the way I passed the Cars of Kentucky used car lot. There was a little red 1967 Austin-Healy Sprite! I had to check it out, so I went to the Car Quest store and ordered a left side caliper, then returned to see the Sprite. It was in great shape with a new top and fresh paint, all for the low-low price of $5000.00. I couldn't fit in it!

So, the new caliper should be in about Tuesday and I will let you know whether it fixes the problem. If it doesn't, I don't know what to do.

zach

Can't believe it has been so long since my last post! The caliper came in at Car Quest and, of course, it was defective. It was a rebuilt unit and the threads on the caliper for the brake hose must have been stripped out when the rebuilder received it, because they drilled it out and put in a threaded insert. The problem is that when they drilled it, they did so at an angle. When I installed the hose and tightened it down, I didn't realize it but the hose was only making contact with the copper washer at one side. The other side had a pretty large gap. When I tried to bleed the caliper, brake fluid squirted out around the hose. Took it back and they ordered another. It took nearly two weeks to receive the next one; I think I used up their stock and they had to go to Seattle to get one. This one seems to work fine. But, based upon my history with this problem, I'm sure something will happen.

On a different topic, I was driving the 'B' to work on Thursday in a hard rain. As I exited the interstate, I drove to the end of the off ramp and was waiting for a break in the traffic before I made my left turn, and the wipers just stopped in mid-wipe! My first thought was "aaaaarrrrrrgggh! What next!" But, a little working of the switch from off to on a couple of times got them working. This happened once with my headlight switch. I was taking a Kentucky back road curve at about 45 mph in the dark and my headlights went black! I quickly lifted my foot off the accelerator and started playing with the headlight switch and thankfully the lights came back on. Haven't had a problem with either switch since. Very curious. But then that's the 30-year old, basically original condition driving experience.

zach

It's back. After driving home from Lexington this afternoon, the brake pedal started pulsating with just the slightest pull on the right side. Gees!

zach

I hardly dared look at this thread for fear of recurring trouble. Sorry to hear this zach.

It's interesting that you said the pedal was pulsating. I forget where your investigations reached in the last 6 pages but I presume your brake disks are true? Really really clutching at straws, but it it possible that you have a wheel out of true - could try swapping the right front for the spare etc. Other than wild guesswork, this is well beyond my understanding of cars...

Good luck anyway,

Ed

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I want my MGB

zach,

I'm almost certain we've visited this before, but... Were the rotors replaced at some point? And, if they were, were they both replaced at the same time? Did the rotors seem to "match"? That is, were they packaged the same way and did they have the same appearance? Any time you replace a rotor, you must replace them both. The reason is that rotors from different "batches" can have different metallurgy, and therefore different friction developing characteristics. Just a thought.....

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Motorbill
From Lola to Land Rover, If it's British and has wheels, it's likely I've bloodied me knuckles thereupon

motorbill,

When I originally replaced the calipers, I also replaced the rotors. The rotors were packed in the same type boxes, labeled the same, from the same manufacturer. An interesting thing is that when the pulsing started in the brakes again, I thought back on what had been replaced and the only thing not replaced was the pads. To see if the problem would follow the pads, I swapped the left and right side brake pads; not the best thing to do, I'm sure. But the problem hasn't resurfaced on either side....yet.

MMMMMM.....

Can you imagine if this all came down to a defective brake pad? This is normally unheard of, but at this point I guess it would almost be welcome.!

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Motorbill
From Lola to Land Rover, If it's British and has wheels, it's likely I've bloodied me knuckles thereupon

I discovered brake fluid on my rubber mat before I stuck my feet in it to sit down in the driver's seat of my '72 MG-B..

I opened the dual chamber brake master cylinder to find the fluid evenly low, and it was full the day before.

I can't visually find the leak. Any suggestions while all the parts are in place?

Hi Mitch

 Please start a new thread with this. It is best to have only one item per thread and this one is really old.

 

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Bayless
Never express yourself more clearly than you can think
'48 Prefect
'67 Sprite (project)