Brakes Fluid Loss

["Tink, Brian@CBR BSAV Mail" <Brian.Tink@domain.elided>]

Fellow staggers.

Do I recall someone asking/ commenting recently about Fluid loss in
Brakes?

Let me give some advice.  Whenever this happens and it is not obvious
where
it is  leaking , check the seal on teh shaft of the Master Cylinder and
the
while you have the M/C off check the inside of the Booster unit.

A Story,  On Saturday while proceeding towards some traffic lights at a
reasonable speed (well I though it was reasonable) the lights changed to
yellow.  Question came to mind  do I run it or stop.  Well, judging the
distance from the intersection  Stop seemed to be the more  prudent
course of
action.

So it was time to stick the boot solidly into the stop pedal.  All was
proceeeding satisfactorily until at (fortuneately) about 5 mph and with
no
other vehicles in front there was this funny noise, the pedal gave a bit
and
rate of deceleration diminished. and it was necessary for one to have a
right
leg that tarzan would have been proud of.

Subsequent application of the brakes resulted in not very efficient
system
and lots of hissing from under dash.  It was obvious that the booster
had
give up the ghost.

Removal of M/C and booster followed, but what was interesting was that
in up
ending the booster unit about a cup of old brake fluid poured out.  It
is now
apparent that over the last 19 years (the life of the trusty every day
hack
mobile, the every reliable 2500S sedan) any leakage from the around the
shaft
of the M/C has accumulated in the Booster unit and so finally the
diaphram
has said "I don't like all this mess and I quit"

There is a fortunate side of this story, I have just returned from a
3000
Kilometre round trip to Queensland and  next weekend I am leaving on
another 
3000 or so kilometre to South Australia.  The side benefits of this trip
is
to visit the famous Barossa valley, home of finest wines in the world,
to
stock up the grog cabinet.

The brake shop has just rang to say the bill will be about $230.  Merry
Christmas.

keep staggering

Brian