Just a quick post that might be helpful to lesser mortals like me but won’t be ‘news’ to the more experienced guys… I did two jobs on the car today and I am delighted with the results…as I was doubtful as to the outcome before I did them. Since I acquired the MX last December I have been aware that the brakes were not brilliant. Ok, they stopped the car alright but if from a high speed it seems that they took a little too long to bring it to a halt. I checked the pads and found all were ok, the discs were slightly ‘rippled’ but not extremely so. I mentioned this in my local car parts/accessories shop and the advice was to change the brake fluid. I won’t bang on about why or how the fluid deteriorates (mainly by absorbing water over time) but it seems it is worth checking on the colour of the fluid. Mine was only slightly darker than the new fluid in my recently purchased bottle of ‘Dot 4’. Using a proprietory ‘bleeding kit’ (a length of clear plastic hose with a one way valve on the end) I fed new fluid into the system and pumped out the old. The result was stunning. I now have what I consider to be good brakes and when using them to come down for say 70mph, they are quite convincing. I am well, pleased.
So, having done that I thought I would check the Clutch system. The clutch operation has always been not quite right in that there had to be a considerable lift of the pedal before the biting point. When I looked in the reservoir the fluid looked black!. As the last brake caliper I had ‘bled’ was the front off-side, the wheel was already off and I could see that the clutch bleed nipple was easily accessible, I decided to do it. The fluid that was pumped out was filthy and I do wonder whether it had ever been changed in 20 years. Anyway, the result of putting in the new stuff has meant that I now have a much more satisfactory clutch operation. Once again, I am well pleased.
On a final note I was pleased to find that all of the bleed nipples apart from one, still had their little rubber dust covers on them and I was able to ‘crack off’ each one without undue difficulty. They were two jobs that didn’t take too long, didn’t reveal any nasty surprises and the results, as I have said were excellent.
