Post
by rswaffie » Tue Feb 06, 2018 5:39 pm
So, an update to the overly-long rear brake pipes (m/c to rear flexi hose) issue.
1. I double checked my routing against some restoration pics from various websites. Most of the examples in the Factory Fit section are LHD so not much use to me. However, I was pretty certain that I was routing mine correctly based on other restoration pics.
2. Rang SNG to find out if they could confirm whether I had the correct lengths for the two pipes - no.s 16 & 17 on the Automec list. They said they couldn't tell me as they did not manufacture them, but they had not had any issues notified to them regarding the fit. I should speak to Automec direct.
3. Spoke to Nicky at Automec, who was very knowledgeable and helpful. She advised that they also had not had any issues notified to them regarding the fit of these pipes, however they could confirm that the pipe no.16 (connector to rear flexi hose) should be 53" and no.17 (connector to m/c) should be 69" for a RHD car. She said it was possible that an error had been made and I'd got a longer pipe, so could I confirm the lengths in the kit.
4. Check the lengths of the two pipes - sure enough, they were as per the lengths quoted. So why the heck was it sticking about three feet past the rear pipe/hose connecting bracket? By now I was beginning to doubt my sanity.
5. Got back to Nicky @ automec and she was also as confused - was my car modified in any way? Have you got the original pipes as a reference? I explained that I was converting from LHD to RHD, so had ordered the RHD version of the kit and she confirmed that it was the right one. I also advised that all the other pipes in the kit fitted without a problem. She did state that the only difference from the LHD kit was that pipe no.17 was much shorter, by about 30". Hmmm, this sounded suspiciously like the right length for the RHD kit as well based on what I had seen.
6. She was still adamant that they had had no issues received regarding the kits, so logically either their specs were wrong and customers just cut them down themselves without complaining, or I had got my routing wrong, or my car was somehow 'different'. I could see her point so to try and close this off, I said I would look at an original RHD 3.8 that was sitting down at The Splined Hub (I was going down anyway to discuss dates for fitting the engine/gbox) and take a look at that car's routing and pipe lengths.
Result - my routing is pretty much the same compared to the example car. The example car's total pipe run length was approx 92" compared to the kit's 122" length and the positioning of the connecting piece suggested that it was indeed the in-line connector to m/c pipe (no.17) that was much shorter than the pipe supplied in their RHD kit. I passed this info back to Nicky, who was equally as bemused as I was but was more than happy to send me a shorter version of pipe no.16 (now 22") as I didn't want to go through all the re-bending of a replacement m/c to connector pipe. She will also speak to some of their commercial customers to see if they had come across this before, and if so change the specs for future kits.
Got there in the end and my sanity is (mostly) not in question. I'll review that statement after I've tackled installing the fuel tank!
....yet to try fitting....mine too was without the reservoir to master cylinder pipes....poor. Maybe even a misrepresentation as a kit can reasonably be expected to contain all the required pipes and they should all be the right length....try a complaint to sngb...
