PDWA De-Mystified

[Brosky]

Having nothing to do today, I overhauled a valve that I bought on eBay some time ago. I'm glad that I did, after looking inside.

Full tutorial to follow.

 

[Tinster]

Proper use of the dark red tones to highlight
the soft glow of the polished brass, I'd say. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/yesnod.gif

I do hope it is the same shade of red as the
newly installed head.

Nice work, Paul.

tinster /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cheers.gif /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif

 

[Brosky]

Dale,

Only you would notice the similarity of the color. But of course, it is.

The little bugger was filled with goop and the piston needed polishing, but other than that, it cleaned up nicely.

You set the rule early on, "if it isn't moving, paint or polish it"!

 

[Tinster]

Ah, Glasshopper!

You make old refurbisher proud of student.

Now go shave remainder of hair on head- too shaggy.

t

 

[DNK]

OK Paul, how did you polish that baby? With a polishing wheel?

 

[Tinster]

DNK-

I am terribly sorry but student Paul is not at liberty to
reveal old teacher's brass refurbishing trade secrets.

Tinster -" The Refurbisher"

[/img]

 

[BOXoROCKS]

PDWA???come on..read your history books,..that was a program started by FDR to plant trees.

Brosky, just hope the plastic connection doesn't leak. Thats the weak link.

 

[Brosky]

Don,

Good old "Brasso" and a par of rubber gloves. That was after soaking in enamel reducer to clean the junk out of the ID. Pipe cleaners are useful for cleaning the piston bore, scratch free. They also are good for placing the brake fluid on the piston and down into the bore without getting it all over everything.

Rocks,

I'm going to order a new plastic fitting from Ford and pick it up when I take my Taurus in for service next week. The old switch was not stuck and the threads were very clean, but I'm not taking a chance, even though I'm switching over to silicone fluid when the new brake system goes in.

 

[BOXoROCKS]

A taurus?....you own a taurus???

 

[TR3driver]

Brosky, just hope the plastic connection doesn't leak. Thats the weak link.

Shouldn't leak, even if you leave the switch out entirely ! The switch is not supposed to have brake fluid against it at all (which is a good thing, since it's not a fluid-tight design). Besides, brake line pressure would probably blow it right out of the threads ! It's just nylon, after all.

 

[BOXoROCKS]

Hey ...aren't there some kind of membership requirements on this forum???

 

[BOXoROCKS]

Opps,ya sneeked in on me TR3, that last post was for Brosky.

anyway your right,but they always seem to weep fluid.

 

[Brosky]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:] A taurus?....you own a taurus???[/QUOTE]

Rocks,

Yeah, in my real life I have to drive a lot of miles every week. I have a 2008 Taurus with the new 263 HP engine and it moves along pretty nicely, with decent mileage.

My wife has a 2006 Ford 500 AWD and I like that as well.

I've driven those ever since Lincoln stopped making the FWD Continental in 2002. In the 90's I had four of those along with a Bonneville, Park Avenue, and Grand Prix.

 

[Brosky]

Randall,

They probably shouldn't leak, but there are many an under hood paint job that has been ruined by them doing just that.

There is brake fluid in there if the seals leak and it probably is held at bay as long as the piston is in the center of the valve and the switch is down at the bottom of it's travel. But if a wheel cylinder or line starts to leak and the pressure varies, allowing the piston to slide back and forth, which will make the switch rod to move upwards in the plastic housing, more pressure may end up in there, causing a leak if the switch is weak in any way.

 

[BOXoROCKS]

Do I dare admit my wife has a KIA?

 

[Brosky]

Why not? There are a some nice cars being made by them right now.

 

[BOXoROCKS]

it moves when you bleed the brakes. Why do we need these switchs. I know the simple answer, I want the pragmatic answer.

 

[Brosky]

They're not really a bad thing, as long as those two little seals inside don't start leaking. That's why I rebuilt this one and I'll rebuild the one that I take off mine and seal it in a plastic bag as a spare.

 

[DNK]

Paul, you work for Ford, right?

 

[TR3driver]

Why do we need these switchs. I know the simple answer, I want the pragmatic answer.

I've told these stories before, but here they are again.

When I bought my second Stag last year, from a friend, he had no idea the rear brakes were not working. I didn't notice it either, until I tried a panic stop. (Fortunately not because I was about to hit something.) If the PDWA had been functional, it would have been obvious something was wrong without the test.

My first Stag suffered total brake system failure while I was driving it, very shortly after buying it. Don't know for certain, but I have to believe those two seals did not fail simultaneously, meaning once again that if the PDWA had been working, I at least would have known there was something wrong.

I lost a previous TR3A (which having single-circuit brakes of course had no PDWA) due to total brake system failure. Hard line rotted through from the inside, which I didn't discover until I was going down a very steep hill into an underground parking garage

SO ... of course you don't have to keep your PDWA. Heck, you don't even have to keep those pesky rear brakes, they don't do much anyway !

But I think I have ample evidence that it's a Good Thing, so I plan to get mine working and keep it that way, even though it would be easier to ignore it.

Hmmm ... wonder what your insurance company would say if you've been in an accident and they find out you deliberately disabled a legally required safety feature ? Be sure to ask them about that.