Now that the engine's running well enough to get on the road I thought it wise to turn my attention to the brakes. With the nearside rear wheel off (It's a genuine Wolfrace slot!) I figured that the axle and brakes had once been under the rear of a MKI Escort which was good as I knew how to tackle them.

Having loosened the brake adjuster with a spanner that's followed me around for years without being used I fully expected the drum to fall into my lap. Silly boy, it'll be stuck on the centre bore won't it.

I can see that it wants to come off but no amount of jiggling will entice it. Having tried heat (which indeed made it looser) and levering with an assortment of knuckle banging directions I gave up. My neighbour's son-in-law has promised a puller during the week and as I helped him get their MKII Escort running recently, he's rather keen on the Westfield as it shares the same running gear.

Rather than be totally defeated I decided to drain the brake fluid, undid the nipple which amazingly didn't round off or shear, and popped on my bleed pipe. Pedal feel was a bit gritty, but I soon pumped some rather icky looking fluid out. At least it's functioning OK. The master cylinder had to come off though, might as well take the entire car apart......

....so let's take the pedal box off then to make it easier to get to the brake pedal.

Well, that was ripped wholesale out of an Escort then. Whoever fitted it into the Westfield wanted to make sure it was very fiddly to remove. The four mounting bolts all had nuts on the inside of the box that were near impossible to get a spanner on. After a great deal of cursing and finesse with my dexterous little fingers I got the thing off. Some modifications need making.

Yuk. Grotty cylinder. Odd throttle cable guide. Miscellaneous unused holes. The clutch cable guide was held in place by a piece of brass plate that seemed to hold it there by the power of magic. Bin that then. There's a bit of cleaning up to do but first I took the master cylinder off. The extra pair of hands belong to my neighbour, Alan. He's never short of a tool or two, in fact, if it wasn't for his collection of pre-stone age Halfords imperial spanners, the whole thing would still be on the car!

We enlarged the holes for the mounting bolts and welded on some nice new captive nuts.

That will make the job of getting it back in much easier. Then I welded the clutch cable guide in place. It needs a little filing still as the angle isn't quite right but actually being attached is a major step forward!

I weld like Cyril Smith danced but at least it'll hold on there. There's a few more tweaks to the pedal box yet to make but I need to offer it up to the car again to see just what needs doing. After that I can give it a squirt of paint.

Now, on to that master cylinder. The yukky feel to the pedal was explained by this:

A combination of what might have been brake grease, some rust and congealed brake fluid. Nice. A quick tap on the bench and the piston fell out though. The inside was clean, no corrosion so that's a good sign.

The inlets for the brake fluid reservoir are a bit crusty too. I prised the rubbers out very carefully as I'd got the wrong re-build kit but they look fine so a clean and pop them back in after tidying up the casting.

There's the pushrod cleaned and ready to go back in. I then cleaned the casting thoroughly. All the little flecks in the picture above were carefully picked out and a little fluid run through to flush any lurkers out. The apertures got stuffed with tissue and I gave it a light coat of paint.

That's better! I must get some DOT4 tomorrow to aid reassembly then work out if I can mount it on the pedal box in a better way than before. It was bolted to a plate that then bolted to the pedal box. I suspect that this was to space it out for the piston length to be right. If that was the case then I'll need to make a nicer spacer so I only need two bolts. On the bolt front, I must order a job lot of stainless bolts and nuts.

I have the rest of this week's evenings to work on it then I must lay a parquet floor. Really. More soon.

PS - I have just seen how many views this blog has had! Over 700. Really? Is there nothing worth watching on the telly