Today concluded a full week of infuriating work on my Capri.  To sum it up in the shortest way possible:  It freaking hates me, it really really does. Now to add a little bit of context to that, lets add a slight back story. 

Starting at the beginning of the year, the car began to have intermittent electrical outages.  These outages effected the entire electrical system, but only lasted for a fraction of a second at the most.  Needless to say, this is quite an annoying thing to deal with, and trouble shoot.  Seeing as it is a mid eighty's Ford product, the logical place to look would be the ignition switch. 

So, my Vacation begins with a trip to the parts store to order a shinny new ignition switch.  Luckily, since the part is so poorly designed and so prone to failure, replacements are extremely cheap.  Of course, this isn't to say that they are easy to replace!  In theory, it is an easy job:  Just 2 screws and an electrical connector is all that holds it in.  But the bitch of it is, that it is held in with break-off security screws.  For those not familiar, these fasteners are designed to snap off at the head when tightened to the correct torque.  This causes them to resemble a pop-rivet, it also leaves no way to easily back them out. 

Well, I managed to delicately tap the old hardware loose with a drift and replace the switch with the new replacement.  All appears well, as the old ignition switch is noticeably separating, and the car is functioning with the new switch.  Off to the test drive we go, just me and the mercy of the car gods.  About a mile from home, at the first stop of the test route, I apply a bit of brake to slow down and what do you know, there's nothing there! 

I am no stranger to the sensation of having no brakes in this particular car.  In fact if anything, I was surprised that it went as long as it did between brake failures!  Since I took ownership of the car I have had complete brake failures a total of three times.  It is always an interesting experience as anybody that has gone through it will tell you.

So with no brakes I delicately made my way back home just to find that the electrical problem was also not fixed, as the car cut out many times in that 1 mile return trip.  I managed to get the car home in one piece, and parked it while I ordered a brand new set of front hard-lines.

With the arrival of the new brake lines, and the hoses as well, the scene is set for a great triumph of modern mechanical work. All that needed to be done was to remove the old lines, which is the easy part as they could be cut and mangled, and the installation of the new lines.  I started at the drivers side front, mostly because it was the shortest run, but also because it was the only line that HAD to be changed (remember this.. it will be important later).  All is going smooth during the removal phase, and even more importantly the routing phase.  The new line slipped into place perfectly, with no problems.  

In the world of brakes, the all mighty brake hose is one of the easiest parts to change.  It is a simple part, but two connectors, and an extra short run, which is also very easy to access and work on.  In the case of my car, nothing is ever easy, as it took me an hour and a half to get the new hose to thread into the caliper! Yes you read that correctly, it took over an hour and a half to thread a simple brake hose into the caliper.  By the time it actually threaded, I was absolutely positively livid and quite upset at the unfortunate turn of events.  If I only knew this would be the start of my frustrations!

Okay, so the brake hose is installed, and I turn my attention back to installation of the passenger front brake line.  To do this, I had to disconnect everything attached to the firewall, as the line runs across the pinch seam, as well as remove everything in the passenger side shock pocket, which in my car contains the EGR and all Boost switch es/regulators. 

Luckily, for such a long line, it slipped into place with no problems.  Everything was connected to the proportioning valve, and we are all set and ready for bleeding. As we start the bleeding process, we run about a quarter quart of brake fluid through the master cylinder before we realize that it is all going directly on the floor into a puddle of epic proportions!

As it turns out the drives side front line is leaking so bad, the line might as well not be attached to the prop valve! The default assumption is to tighten in more! It must be Loose! Negitory my friends, no matter how tight we made it, it just continued to leak and leak. At that point I called it a day and left it sit on stands for a few days.

We tried reseating the line into the prop valve, which didn't work,  leading us to think that the prop valve was damaged.  So a quick run to the local junkyards yields us a replacement prop valve, which upon installation, STILL LEAKS.  At this point it is apparent that the flare on the replacement line must have been damaged during the first failed installation. Good thing we just purchased a double flaring tool!

I proceed to put a new flare end on the line, which to no surprise failed the first time, as the flare did not bell out far enough in the first stage, this is common I'm told.  So I attempt to put another flare in, at this point I have already removed quite a bit of line, so I need to get it right this time, or else risk junking the entire replacement line!  About half way though the process, I Broke The God Damn Die!  Yep, the guide pin on the flaring die snapped clean off! And it is lodged in the line as an extra bonus!  Oh the fun of working on brake parts!  I attempted to finish the flare, but due to the die breaking half way though, the entire flare was off center, and looked completely deformed, oh lucky day it is!

At this point I am completely upset and have no option but to attempt to reinstall the line just so that I could move the car from the garage bay and back to the shed.  Upon reinstallation, it was no surprise that the line continued to leak like nobody's business.  So at the end of the week, the car was rolled from the garage in the same condition that it entered in.  I broke a brand new brake line, and a prop valve, and probably damaged the replacement prop valve as well.    It is quite apparent that I have no talent for brake work. 

Just a quick run down of all the brake parts I have broken since I have owned the car, Most of these were on the road failures, but some were related to work being done to fix those failures.

• 1 Rear brake line
• 1 Rear brake hose
• 1 Master Cylinder
• 2 Parking brake cables
• 2 proportioning valves (NOT including the one I just installed! )
• 3 Front brake lines
• 3 Master Cylinder to Prop Valve lines
• And last but not least, a double flare die

At this point I don't know when I will get a chance to fix it, but as far as I am concerned it can just sit out there and think about what it has done ;-)