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 When I first brought out Project HMX
after its winter slumber, I noted some brake issues - they felt soft
and would lock up when I really jumped on them. But under normal
braking, they seemed passable. Maybe the brake fluid in the lines had
just absorbed some moisture while the car sat over the winter, I
thought, so I bled the brakes all around and took it for another test
drive. Still soft. Bled again, still soft. What's going on here?
What I neglected to do while bleeding the brakes was to perform a
visual inspection of the entire brake system. Had I done that, I would
have seen the paint peeling from the spindle uprights in the front
suspension, a clear sign of a brake fluid leak, and saved myself some
time and effort (and about half a bottle of brake fluid).
As you can see from the photo above, the front brake hoses pass behind the upright forward to the caliper. The drop plates that I installed
over the winter, of course, added about an inch to the front track of
the car by pushing out the spindle, the caliper bracket and the caliper
itself a half-inch per side, and at the time I believed the brake hoses
had plenty of clearance to make the straight shot into the caliper. As
it turned out, however, the uprights ended up interfering very slightly
with the brake hoses, causing it to leak. It didn't leak much, but
enough to cause the issues I'd been having.
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