Cliff's 33 Hot Rod Build in Virginia

[colsen23153]

I brought my car into a repair shop to be inspected and the mechanic said I had a brake fluid leak which appears to be coming from the bottom edge of the reservoir. I had noticed this about a year ago and asked FFR to send me another one. Now I have the same problem so there must be more to this. I was thinking that the reservoir had a weld on the bottom of it that was leaking. I took out the "old" one and looked it over closely. What I discovered was that the reservoir is actually made up of two cylinder cups. Look into the reservoir and you can see the top of the smaller cup at the bottom of the outside larger cup. They must be pressed together to form the reservoir. So how was the brake fluid getting past the top of the inner cup between the two cups. Only thing that could cause that is pressure.

Well the cap of the reservoir has a hole in it so any pressure in the cup should escape through the hole in the cap. That's the way it should have worked. As the fluid heated up in the lines and brake cylinder it would expand causing the the pressure buildup. Also if the fluid level was too much it wouldn't give it enough space to expand. Well I took a vacuum pump and connected it to the bottom of the old reservoir and pumped it up. I expected it to not hold any vacuum. It reached 10 inches and held it there for over a few minutes. That should have not happened according to my thinking. I tried to blow through the hole in the cap and nothing. I drilled a very small hole into it and still couldn't get any air through it. It wasn't until I got the black gasket out of the cap that it worked. I couldn't find any hole in the gasket so I put one in it. So that should take care of the leaking reservoir. Just don't overfill it and don't over tighten the cap.

I have been chasing my tail trying to solve a random problem with my steering where it will slightly pull to one side or the other. The "crowned road" effect. I had the alignment double checked and it was still good. Now, with what I just explained above, I was wondering if that might be causing the problem. With enough pressure I had in the reservoir to cause the fluid to pass between the two cups, was it possible that it was causing excessive pressure in the brake system causing the calipers to not release completely, causing the pulling on the rotor on a wheel?

I will test drive it after I return from the 4th of July week end.