How heavy a gram can weigh
04/26/2025
It was almost meditative, grinding in the bolt - or is that even a shaft? -which supports the pedals on the master cylinder of my DeSoto. Both the clutch and the brake pedal sit directly on the master cylinder - a rather ingenious design. However, the bolt is supposed to slip through an eye without play so that the whole thing can be screwed back under the floor of the car one after the other. It didn't, so I gutted the eye on the drill press with a drill bit wrapped in sandpaper - slowly and carefully, meditatively.
The joy grew, the anticipation that it would only be a short while before my brake pedal would once again give me the confidence to ride the DeSoto extensively with firm pressure. Fit the brake master cylinder, attach the pedals to the side, push the bolts through and secure them, lubricate a little - everything has grease nipples, just like the Americans - attach the brake line and then bleed the air. Yes, that's what I thought. Until I got to the "brake line" point.
An inconspicuous, small adapter between the line and the end plate of the cylinder showed a crack, then a piece broke off and the whole weekend was ruined! A tiny piece of brass that was missing ruined the Easter weekend. That is quite amazing. And it shows the fascination of this machine "car" as a whole, a thing that weighs tons, but in detail depends on many tiny individual parts - in this case a piece of brass the size of a pin. Well, finding a new adapter is of course not rocket science, it's a standard part. But until I have it, the car will be parked for a while yet. This weekend would be the Swiss Historic Vehicle Days, the Swiss Historic Vehicle Weekend. Let's see...
