Slow Fleet – Mercedes 500SE May 2015 Part 2

Latest Costs: £0, well I don’t think there’s anything additional in this one…
Miles this period: No more than the last post

Whilst I was waiting for the brake calipers I decided to tackle some of the under bonnet stuff, mainly I was interested in checking why I only has two of the four belts it should have. Things became obvious when I saw the condition of the pulley, the bearing was completely shot and was missing balls and part of the cage.

So that left me another thing to order and I put it to one side to have a look at the throttle linkage.

A good dose of cleaner and oil for the little ball joints seemed to help with the action, things snapping back nicely. Hopefully this would aid with the smoothness. I even gave the air intake beneath the filter a clean with some fuel system cleaner.

But before long all of this had arrived.

Which was good as I really needed to tackle the brakes, certainly before going anywhere involving any distance. Starting with the right side, the one with no bleed nipple I discovered more problems, just as well I ordered new flexi hoses, everything was corroded together…

So with two weeks to go I did the only, sensible, thing I could do… Cut them all off.

Much sawing and cutting with the rather tired old Black and Decker Wizard saw the complete removal of the entire rear braking system, with the exception of the left caliper… It was on tight, so I thought I’d leave it and finish the other side first. But not before I got the T-Piece apart as all three ferrules were seized in and rounded off. Not good, but I’d probably be able to buy another one off the shelf, it’s just a delay that’s all.

It’s quite a nice thing the T-Piece, having the Mercedes star cast into it, so worth having a genuine one, especially as it mounts to the rear crossmember.

So you’re wondering why there’s a small blow torch and a candle, no I wasn’t having trouble lighting it, heat and some additional lubrication makes these things easier to get undone. Heat alone wasn’t going to shift it and the mole grips had helped finish off the already ruined flats on the ferrules. Maybe I’ll do some instructons on this really useful tip.

As I had cut the long pipe to the back to get it out, I either needed to make one from the master cylinder to the back or my preferred option at this stage was to flare the old cut pipe under the car.

That worked…. thankfully, I’d have probably found more to do if I’d have had to do the front too.

Thankfully I make quite a nice brake pipe, or six. It’s quite theraputic, even getting good results with the cheap hand held flaring kit. I’d love an Automec, but this isn’t bad really, maybe I’ll review it for you.

I managed to get the caliper off too with some heat, it really didn’t want to.

The only concern, was that the new rear flexis appear to be for the other type of caliper, where they screw straight in, not having the link pipe, so the top hat brackets made the gap too big. So a good rummage through the spares at Jalopy HQ yielded some washers, which stayed put when pulled about. I wonder what the MOT man will make of it…

That’s enough for now, will it ever make it…