HELP!!! Car is stuck at mechanics!

[opus10583]

I'm surprised the vendor couldn't offer advice on how to make their product work properly.

Not as surprised as I am. Everyone at VAS have been great to deal with over the last half year, this
is very puzzling.

Thanks,
Mark

[opus10583]

A rubber one on it's way... 250 wasted dollars not including the labor or the two quarts of brake fluid they've gone through trying to make it work.

They ran two quarts of fluid through it trying to make it work? I think I would get the thing home and make sure they did the rest of the brake job correctly. Why not get the vendor to replace the part? You've spent the money on stainless. Pretty sure if the part is made poorly they'll replace it. Well, most of them will anyway.

An "expert" recently replaced the clutch cable on a friend's Spider for $400. This was before i knew the guy had bought a FIAT...long story short, when it broke due to misrouting and I swapped it in his driveway in 12 minutes he was kind of pissed. If you know how to do this stuff yourself - even if you don't do the work yourself - you can save yourself some misery.

They've opened two quarts sure, drain, fill, drain, fill, drain, fill, flush, bleed...

I will get a another hose from them to compare to the one they sent, but pictures have gone back and forth and they insist the short-nosed fitting is correct, although it is quite clearly not.

I'm sure things will work out somehow, but losing this past weekend to something this simple is not sitting well right now.

Thanks,
Mark

[124ADDHE]

My center hose threads into the t-block, there is no copper washer (buying new copper is not smart, just heat it glowing on a flat surface and let it cool, just as good as new, just so long as it is not compressed to the point of seeing through the copper ), it seals just as a brake bleeder seals, with a taper bottoming out. Autoricambi sold me a set a few months back and their center hose was plenty long enough for me. Maybe there is a burr or something on the mating surfaces of the brake parts; lubrication of threads is great because more of the small amount of the torque that you can apply to these parts is converted to the seal of the system.

Teflon tape is not to seal, it is just a lubricant. Synthetic brake grease is approved to be used within the brake system (lubing your rubber seals and brake cylinders for rebuilding and cleaning) and I like to use a lubricant on all threaded braking parts, it really helps for maintnance in the future.

[opus10583]

Update

Received a replacement hose yesterday: Same configuration, T-block-end fitting is about 10mm too short.

Totaling the damage tonight.

Mark

[WYSpider]

Received a replacement hose yesterday: Same configuration, T-block-end fitting is about 10mm too short.

Opus, sounds like a complete fuster cluck.

Whatever solution you come up with, be sure you have slack in the hose to compensate for things moving around.

I'm sure Csaba or Ramzi at Auto Ricambi, Thomas at Midwest-Bayless, or Mark at Allison's Automotive would be able to fix you up with the proper stainless hoses.

Center Brake Hose with Teflon Tape "Kludge"

[opus10583]

Received a replacement hose yesterday: Same configuration, T-block-end fitting is about 10mm too short.

Opus, sounds like a complete fuster cluck.

Whatever solution you come up with, be sure you have slack in the hose to compensate for things moving around.

I'm sure Casaba or Ramzi at Auto Ricambi, Thomas at Midwest-Bayless, or Mark at Allison's Automotive would be able to fix you up with the proper stainless hoses.

Center Brake Hose with Teflon Tape "Kludge"

I didn't mean to disparage, kludge to me is any sort of workaround...

Cluster indeed:

Rubber hose from IAP solved the leak, shop can't bleed the system properly.

On top of which their "alignment" left the steering wheel at 11 o'clock.

I'm beginning to grasp the concept of "unknown unknowables".

Car's going to shop number four tomorrow.

Ciao,
Mark

[124ADDHE]

Yeah, i dont get why so many mechanics are so pathetic with their quality of work, they just slap it together; I have been to Canadain tire 3 times so that they can get my steering wheel straight after a 4 wheel alignment, its just stupid when after 3 attempts with their computerized rig that they cannot do this...I just had to say f-it after so many trips to town and 45-90 minutes per "attempt"....I just went hope, scribed a line on the tires, made a quick adjustment with the old stanley tape measure and voila! straight ahead just like when I did the fiat.....hmmm maybe I should open a shop...

I really dont know why the brakes are nearly impossible to bleed on these cars, so many people have issues..Try having the rear end jacked up so that any air in the master cylinder will make its way to the front and rear circuits to be bled out as the MC is angled slightly upwards.

[WYSpider]

Bleeding is best done with two people, but other than that I've never had a problem doing the brakes. Even installed a master cylinder (w/o bench bleeding it) and bled it in place in the car.

Only thing you need to do for the rear is disconnect the rear brake compensator (that silver metal bracket on the right edge of my picture), and position the compensator bar up as far as it goes (I use a piece of wood to hold it up).

Then bleed in the following order: (1) right rear, (2) left rear, (3) right front, then (4) left front.

A bit of teflon tape on the threads of the bleeder screws helps prevent air coming back into the calipers.

[vandor]

Only thing you need to do for the rear is disconnect the rear brake compensator (that silver metal bracket on the right edge of my picture), and position the compensator bar up as far as it goes (I use a piece of wood to hold it up).

I usually just jack the car up by the rear axle, so the compensator stays open.

[opus10583]

Hi,

I am very grateful for everyone's input. I only wish I could follow through on my own, but living in an apartment I am dependent upon the services of repair shops.

Tonight it gets dropped off at Alfredo's in Larchmont, NY, an old-time FIAT-Lancia-Alfa dealer-repair shop.

Fingers-crossed.

Thanks,
Mark