The event was first planned as “The Anniversary Trial” to celebrate Stroud’s 50th. Andrew Brown and Rich Welch organised it as a day/night event, with relatively easy sections, with the emphasis on the team award. They had sought out a mixture of old and new sections in the Cotswolds, using the area to the North of “The Cloud’s” stamping ground. Andrew had done a tremendous amount of research, including seeking out some of the sections used on the old Falcon Guy Fawkes. The event was first called off because of floods and then Foot and Mouth got in the way. By this time both Andrew and Rich ran into time problems and the event was put on the back burner.
It was a waste to throw away all the hard work, so Stroud’s Hayward clan took up the mantle and the club decided to make their Mechanic’s Trial a road event. It was to use some of the defunct “Anniversary’s” route, but with some new ones to make it a rather tougher event, in the normal Stroud style. Mike and I had originally planned to do The Anniversary in Mike’s Escort but we entered The Mechanic’s in my Beetle.
The car had been resting in the garage over the summer and I hadn’t really done anything to it since The Lands End. It had gone well on The Edinburgh, despite the little problem when the brakes disappeared. The first time this happened was in the queue for Putwell. I went to move the car forward and the footbrake went to the floor! A pump of the pedal and there was a little bit of brake, another pump and it was back to normal. I leapt out of the car and dived underneath. No evidence of leaks. Up with the hood to check the reservoir, all looked well and the pedal was back.
We continued with caution and all seemed well. An hour or so later we were coming down a hill in convoy with Mike Pearson and Simon Robson and the pedal went to the floor again. Turning into a lay by we checked. Again there was no fluid loss and the pedal came back after a pump or two. I went back and talked to Mike and Arnold and they reckoned the master cylinder was on the way out. I decided to continue albeit at quite a slow pace! We finished the trial and drove home the next day with no problems. Back at base, I could find nothing wrong, although I noticed the front brakes were dragging a bit.
The next weekend I fitted a new master cylinder, which was bit of an effort, as the other one hadn’t been fitted properly. The pushrod passed through the double-skinned front bulkhead on the floor pan. It is only supposed to bolt to the outer skin, using a couple of spacers to extend the length of the bolts. The manual gives dire warnings about not dropping these down into the void. I didn’t, because they weren’t there! Someone had lost them when changing the master cylinder on a previous occasion! I used a magnet to fish about down the hole to no avail, presumably they had fallen out when I had a section of the frame head replaced in the early days of owning the car.
The previous owner had secured the master cylinder by putting large washers under the bolts and securing the master cylinder through both skins, which without the spacers had collapsed the inner one in a bit. I didn’t want to repeat the error so I made a couple of new ones up out of a couple of bits of pipe, skimming them flat with the little model makers lathe I bought earlier in the year. I put everything back together and everything worked, except the front brakes seemed to be dragging a bit. I took the car for a spin and everything seemed to function so I put it away until the Mechanics Trial.
Mike and I set out early, chatting away, without a care in the world. We got to Ampthill, about ten miles away from home and I braked for a roundabout. Pulling away I smelt burning and soon realised it as coming from the brakes. We stopped and I saw how hot the front hubs were. Hoping whatever was wrong would right itself we carried, on but the car wouldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding. Stopping we jacked the front up. The brakes were locked on pretty solid.
It was raining but we had good look but couldn’t come up with any better ideas other than the new master cylinder was faulty. I hammered away at the pads until they were free of the disks and we limped home on the handbrake. We talked of going down and spectating on The Mechanics but decided this was not a good idea as we didn’t know where any of the hills were so we went to the VW Swap Meet at Slough instead.
Looking at the car the first idea was that I hadn’t adjusted the master cylinder pushrod correctly, preventing the fluid going back up to the reservoir when the brakes are released. I slackened this right off and it made no difference. Then I undid the bleed nipples, releasing any pressure, still no difference. Then I took the brake pipes off, still no difference! So that only left the callipers, which were only a couple of years old but there was nothing else. Putting the pipes back, I persuaded Lesley to get in the car and put the brakes on. I then got a drift and knocked one of the pads back. I got her to put her foot on the pedal again. The piston didn’t move. Harder and harder, she pushed and slowly it moved forward with many creaks and groans. I took the pad out and got my big crowbar and levered the piston back. We repeated the process for about ten minutes until the piston moved freely. I put the pad back and went on top the next one.
I was pretty annoyed with myself for not trying this in the lay-by but there we are. The brakes worked but I decided not to take any chances and got a new pair of callipers. Now all I have to do is stop the fluid leaks having undone all those brake pipes! So, why had the brakes failed on The Edinburgh? Murray’s theory is that they were rubbing then and that the heat had boiled the brake fluid. Any better idea’s?
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