Solid pipe or flexi

[Kevin.payne.15]

All. Just had the bonnet up and seen that the GT6 clutch master cylinder has been weeping and eaten the paint on the bulkhead. 

Im going to replace with a new unit as I did seals a few years ago but whilst at I thought that I might replace the pipe as well as I think it’s the original and must be pretty fatigued by now. What’s recommended, go for the solid pipe or get a braided rubber hose?

Also, does anyone know how to neutralise the leaked fluid and prevent further erosion ?

thanks

kevin

[Pete Lewis]

wont repair the paint pickle but water is the simpleßt  disolves brake fluid   kettle of hot is best as it dries up 

also works on corrosion around battery posts ,  so make a cuppa and use the boiled to advantage

brake cleaner shifts fluid  but costs .

as for repar its clean back to sound and re paint 

there used to be some trays you bolted under the support brackets but not seen recently ???

[Clive]

Solid pipe with a coil of a few turns has always been enough. I coil mine rounds small beer bottle....about the right size. And I like 3-4 turns.

[Adrian Cooper]

1 vote from me for the braided pipe. And while you have it all apart, why not add a second flexible pipe for remote bleeding of the clutch slave cylinder? If you do, and have a cutout door in the gearbox tunnel for checking the gearbox oil level too, it might be years before you need to take the blasted thing off again.

Adrian

[dougbgt6]

I changed mine to flexi, our beloved GT6 registrar, Andy Cook, had a coil one fracture, so I copied him. I've also changed to silicone, no more rotting paint work. You have to re-bleed it a couple of days apart, it does hang on to air bubbles. Sand paper, anti rust paint and touch up paint for the bulk head.

Doug

[Kevin.payne.15]

Thanks all. 

Adrian, funnily enough I’ve already made the access panel as shown.  It’s held on at the back with anchor nuts 

kevin

[dougbgt6]

Neat job Kevin.

How are the edges of the tunnel?  I had to use double sealing tape because mine were too deep, which made locating the holes in the body difficult.

Also I used small bolts on the footrest with big washers inside the tunnel, I thought screws might pull out, like they did on my old cardboard tunnel!

Doug

[Colin Lindsay]

14 hours ago, Pete Lewis said:

brake cleaner shifts fluid  but costs .

there used to be some trays you bolted under the support brackets but not seen recently ???

It costs even more if, like me, you pick up a tin of carb cleaner by mistake... oops!

Those trays are on eBay, from a seller / manufacturer in Australia.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIUMPH-SPITFIRE-GT6-Master-Cylinder-Aluminium-Drip-Tray-BRAND-NEW/153191104391?hash=item23aae6bf87:g:b5EAAOxy~ilSSgRb

[Pete Lewis]

at £24 a pop it cant be that hard to make one from a old plastic lid from some redundant micro wave tub etc. 

[dougbgt6]

Maybe I'm Captain Clumsy, but when I duffed up the top of my bulkhead there was brake fluid damaged paint from wiper motor to windscreen cleaner bottle. So I'm not sure two tiny trays are much protection..  And at £24 + £10 postage a litre of silicone works out cheaper.

Doug 

[Pete Lewis]

back to the  orig,   i fitted braided flexible to the Vit6 with no after effects 

back in history when many manufactures used a red plastic tube these were fine untill they were in very hot zones where they could expand and loose you travel

pete

[dougbgt6]

I was contemplating fitting a similar armoured pipe to my oil gauge. Currently the pipe is plastic, if it leaked you wouldn't notice till all the oil was gone.    And then it's too late!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283019768276?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&fromMakeTrack=true

Doug

[Kevin.payne.15]

Ok so I’m going flexi with silicone. What do I need to do to the brake system to commonise the fluid to silicone all round? 

Re tunnel. I bought a strip of the sponge sealing tape that worked ok on the sides but was miles off at the front top. I made up some clips that screw in from the engine bay to close the gap, again into anchor nuts.  A round of duct tape does the rest. I also insulated it with the film from merlin motorsport 

kevin

[dougbgt6]

Kevin,

Here's a piece from Buckeye Triumphs about silicone, the author was unsure to start with and did a lot of tests. When he decided to do the swap he just poured it in and bled the brakes until the purple silicone started coming out. You may want to have a look at your brake rubbers before you change, silicone is expensive stuff and you don't want to lose any later on. I found it hangs on to air bubbles and I had to bleed the clutch again a couple of days after changing.

http://www.buckeyetriumphs.org/technical/Brakes/Fluid/Fluid.htm

[Pete Lewis]

Hats off to the Buckeye triumphs site always good sensible information 

Can take some reading but whether its brakes carbs  clutches or whatever  good facts decent photos and much more 

Pete

[Paul H]

5 hours ago, dougbgt6 said:

I was contemplating fitting a similar armoured pipe to my oil gauge. Currently the pipe is plastic, if it leaked you wouldn't notice till all the oil was gone.    And then it's too late!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283019768276?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&fromMakeTrack=true

Doug

4ft seems a tad long, would it coil under the dash or can it be shortened

Paul 

[dougbgt6]

Paul,

Haven't measured it yet, but the pipe runs from the oil feed to the grommet by the fuse box and then to my  gauge in the centre of the dash. I thought 4 feet might not be long enough and I might need the 6 foot! I don't think it can be successfully shortened, but you could easily coil it up to loose a bit of length.

Doug

[Kevin.payne.15]

I too explored shortening the pipe and couldn’t and the guys at Moss suggested strongly against trying. I have the coil behind the passenger shelf. It doesn’t affect function as far as I can tell

kevin

[Mjit]

21 hours ago, dougbgt6 said:

I was contemplating fitting a similar armoured pipe to my oil gauge. Currently the pipe is plastic, if it leaked you wouldn't notice till all the oil was gone.    And then it's too late!

Having had the oil guage pipe some adrift on my 2000 you find out it's happened pretty darn quickly, as the oil pressure light comes on almost right away.

Mine came off at the engine end which, while it resulted in hours of engine bay clean-up was probably better than comming off at the gauge end!

[Mjit]

19 hours ago, Kevin.payne.15 said:

Ok so I’m going flexi with silicone. What do I need to do to the brake system to commonise the fluid to silicone all round?

While many Internat/pub experts will tell you you need to replace everything from the rubber parts, through the pipes, to the altenator/seat overs/tyres in people who actually make the stuff say you don't NEED to change anything.

There are two caveats to that though:

1. While mineral and silicone fluids are compatible they will mix to a degree and any mineral lift in the system will still be hydroscopic, so will 'age'.  Of course you're talking about 1% of your fluid being 'too old' rather than 100% of it so still better than having a system full of 5 year old mineral fluid.
2. What condition are your seals, cylinders and pipes in anyway?  You need to pump out all the old mineral fluid regardless and it doesn't make much difference if you do this mineral->silicone or mineral->air->silicone.  Everything almost brand new?  Just change the fluid, mineral->silicone.  Pipes possibly original and/or looking a bit crusty?  Can't remember the last time you replaced the seals so expecting one to start leaking any time?  Go mineral->air, refresh anything liiking tired, air->silicone.

 

[Paul H]

15 hours ago, Paul H said:

4ft seems a tad long, would it coil under the dash or can it be shortened

Paul 

Hi just measured and 4ft is about right for my Vitesse - Oil Pressure is left of centre in the dash - There will be some spare so will take a longer way round 

Paul 

[dougbgt6]

Mjit,

It's all covered in the Buckeye document I referred to earlier. 

I like the bit where he mixes DOT4 & DOT5 in a jam jar and they slowly separate, one floating on the other. A couple of hours later he's surprised to find they've apparently swapped places! Then he realizes DOT4 had leached all the purple colour out of DOT5.

My pipe came loose on the gauge, fortunately I was in the process of painting the foot well and noticed the puddle on the floor. No warning light, gauge still reading fine. It occurred to me that the same leak at the other end of the pipe and gauge and warning light would remain fine until all the oil was gone.

db

[Pete Lewis]

when its oil gone you get a expensive audible warning 

Pete

[mark powell]

5 hours ago, Mjit said:

Having had the oil guage pipe some adrift on my 2000 you find out it's happened pretty darn quickly, as the oil pressure light comes on almost right away.

Mine came off at the engine end which, while it resulted in hours of engine bay clean-up was probably better than comming off at the gauge end!

Way back in the day, I was part of a convoy of Moss kit cars returning from a jaunt to the Champagne region. My Midge decided to separate itself from the oil gauge pipe at the engine end whilst we were queuing at an autoroute toll station....  P**ing with rain, french motorist spotted the spreading pool of oil and warned me. I was able to effect a repair, topped up with oil and we all made haste for the ferry...  which we missed. 

   Idling only, so could have been much worse.   History turns a blind eye to any untoward results of an oil slick at a toll booth, in the dark, in the rain.....

[Bitumen Boy]

I too had one of the plastic oil pressure lines fail at the engine end once, had to hike a mile in pouring rain to a garage to get more oil but apparently no more damage done.  

I have heard of someone being badly burned by hot escaping oil when one of these plastic lines failed at the gauge end, IMO they're not fit for purpose.