After a few hours of Funcours on October 3, 2009, wandering around seeing these immaculate, interesting cars, I decided to check my fluids, given that I’m headed back home tomorrow. I am not diverting to Big Sur on the way back, so its about 2950 miles.
My brake fluid in the master cylinder was only half full - that means I’m loosing fluid. I drove to a Sears auto shop near the hotel and asked for an oil change. While the car was up on the lift I went to see what was going on. My front right caliper was leaking badly. The backside of the tyre was soaked in silicone (DOT 5, also a decent tyre dressing).
Sears would not let me work on the car on the lift, or hand me the caliper for me to repair it, for litigous reasons. I understand that. So after the oil change, I went to the car park of my motel and broke out my tools again. I brought with me these terrific folding jack stands (like a camera tripod). As we all know, stands are so essential anytime you stick your head in a wheel well or get under the car. I couldn’t find them in the US, so ordered them from MOSS Europe in the UK. They were 25 pounds. Folded, they are about 2” in diameter and compatible with TR packing limitations and rated 4-ton:
http://www.moss-europe.co.uk/Shop/ViewProducts.aspx?PlateIndexID=11088&SortOrder=2


Here is the offending caliper. I had to replace the seals on the opposite caliper a couple of months ago. I thought that was a freak failure, given they had been rebuilt two years ago. Clearly I should have done both together. However, I had the rebuild kit with me. Rick from Portland and with a hot TR6, was a great help. We bled the brakes and all seems well. Sheesh - a loss of brakes is the last thing I need, heading out to the East Coast.
In the morning I’m headed home from SLO. My goals are:
Day 1: Flagstaff
Day 2: Oklahoma City (that’s in NOT OK)
Day 3: Indianapolis
Day 4: Philadelphia
I’ll post brief notes to let you see how I do.
Cheers, all
Brian