The Webmaster Zone

Its raining buckets here, so I had a chance to get on my back in the footwell and find out the source of the leaks while having my face dripped on. Its the rubber grommets for the windshield wipers on both sides... should be easy and cheap to fix. Having some problems with the ignition warning lamp staying on when the car is off. Sometimes when it does that, I will hear a ping sound under the hood and it will go off, I managed to trace the problem to the control box. Disconnected the battery and took the cover off to find ample corrosion, so I attacked it with 600 grit sandpaper and got all the surfaces shiny clean. Hopefully that will solve that problem but we will see. I also topped up all the shock absorbers - to get to the rear shock filler holes, I had to cut the carpet off the access holes so obviously nobody had checked the fluid levels since the car was upholstered, who knows when that was. One of the rear shocks was a bit low but they seem to be in good working order, that is, not leaking. Moving to the front of the car I used carb cleaner to try and find any air leaks around the carbs and inlet manifold but no luck. I ran out of cleaner so I will have to try again when the car has warmed up - I think there is an air leak somewhere that is contributing to my trouble getting the idle low enough, even with the idle screws backed all the way out. Put the car up on jack stands and removed the wheels, topped up the front dampers. The passenger side damper is leaking like a sieve, the fluid comes out by the arm as soon as you put it in. Not good. The driver's side damper seems alright though. I took a good look at the suspension again now that I have some decent light and the bushes and springs are in a very sorry state. I've got all the parts for the front caliper rebuild though, which was my main goal - didn't have time last night to really get started though, so I took a look around. I want to determine if the calipers aren't releasing due to the pistons being stuck or if the brake hose is collapsed creating a sort of one-way valve. To that end I wanted to open the bleed screw to see if I could then move the piston but I could not get the bleed screws to move on either side even with considerable force! Another "who knows how long it has been" - this time, since the brake fluid was changed. I'm soaking the screws in Liquid Wrench today, tonight I will start the caliper rebuild and let you know how it goes!