First Block-Off Plate

October 22, 2013 -

  I got the replacement front flexible brake lines from Wilwood today and put them on. I now just need a hand bleeding the front brakes. I was able to get the switch on the top of the brake pedal to connect to the wiring harness by just cutting the harness's connector in half and putting the individual wire's connectors on the switch's terminals. (It was that or do what they told me which was cut the connector off and put new individual wire connector's on each wire.) Then I got to use the first block-off plate (circular one) on the driver's front footbox panel. The front wiring harness goes through this (and the black rubber grommet in the middle) and connects with the main wiring harness.

Wiring Harness

October 20, 2013 -

  With some help I finished up the rear brakes! It was nice to see them stopping the wheels when applied. Then I installed the electrical wiring harness which comes together in a fuse panel in the pedal box.  The hard part was getting three lines from the harness to fit between two aluminum panels and go into the engine bay. The small opening had to be slowly enlarged to get them all to fit. You can see them in the picture below coming "out of no where" into the engine bay just below those hoses coming from the two brake reservoirs. Thank you Rachel for the extra hand in much of this.

Thank You

October 16, 2013 -

  No successes to report today but I wanted to thank two people for helping me out.  First when I was rolling out the body buck a leg snapped off and trying to fix that while holding up 1/4 of the buck and body is difficult.  (I've already done it once!)  My neighbor Dave saw this and came over to help.  Much appreciated!
  Later I tried to bleed the rear brakes with my dad.  The passenger side rear caliper bubbled and fluid came out and things looked good.  I couldn't get any fluid or bubbles out of the driver's rear caliper though.  I found a small slow drop leak in a hard line junction so maybe that's the issue?  I'm not sure why so much fluid got to the far passenger side and not the driver's side unless maybe there's a clog in the branch going to the driver's caliper or in the three way hard line junction, or the flexible line maybe? Another mystery to be solved, but I wanted to thank my dad for coming over and helping out.
  Oh and you might be wondering, what about the front brakes?  Turns out both flexible lines on the front were defective and leaked like a lawn sprinkler.  After taking them off and examining the fitting Wilwood agreed I did not over torque them and they must be defective.  Wilwood will be sending me replacements.

More Brake Lines

October 14, 2013 -

  I tried to make a big push today to finish up the brake lines.  I almost finished.  Here is a picture of the rear hard brake line.  I opted for the shorter pathway which left some extra line which I used up in a few gratuitous turns...

  Next I started on the front hard brake line.  I needed to do a double flaring and here it is:

  This was much better than my practice attempts which I may or may not have posted.  Those pictures aren't pretty.  With this piece I put in the front brake line (from the master cylinder to the T junction.)

  

  The line comes across left to right under the black bar and then down to the T junction.  The engine stuff you see is a motorcycle in the background.  One more double flaring and I can attach the first brake line I bent and it'll be time to fill with brake fluid and bleed the lines!

Brake Lines

October 10, 2013

  Got some new tools in today. A 36mm socket and a 5/8" drill bit. They were harder to find than you'd think so I had to turn to the internet. The socket was to tighten down the rear spindle nut so not much to see there. The drill bit made holes in the driver's footbox inner panel for the brake reservoir lines to go to the master cylinders. Check it out:

  Now I'm into bending the hard brake lines. Once those are done, I can fill the system with fluid and bleed the air out. Then it's time for the engine and transmission...