Before tempting fate too much, I poured in one quart. Watching the floor--no drips (yet).

My next task is dealing with brakes. First step: remove the Textar pads and go back to Porterfields. Originally, I could get the front brakes to lock but not with Textar.

Starting in the front, Textar pads removed.

I lightly scuffed the disk with some medium emery paper.

And did the same with the pads.

Left front done.

And the right front.

I started on the rears, but got side-tracked. The retaining ring for the inner piston bellows fell out. This is a job for tomorrow.

No drips! So I put in another 2 quarts.

And then got distracted by other tasks in the garage.

I had a few minutes between other stuff today, and searched out a tool to seat the caliper seal retaining ring. I found one in my wife's spice cabinet. Don't tell her.

Tool in use. Just big enough to fit over piston.

Success (I hope).

Uh-oh. The tool looks a little worn. Now to get it back to the kitchen.

necessity the mother of invention!

Oops, good thing your wife is forgiving, or get that hunk of junk out of the garage for once and for all

And trying to not get caught.

Well Bob, I think she might have you pegged this time. Nice tool invention though.. I will keep it in mind......LOL

Well, I got busted. She caught me before I could hide the jar in the back. At least parsley is not expensive or important, so I got off with a warning.

I had a distracting week, especially with a good friend from Scotland who spent an extra long weekend, when we drank a good bit of the whisky he brought.

Once I sobered up, I finally finished swapping the brake pads, back to the Porterfield pads I started with. Here I have the right rear ready for adjustment.

.004" clearance.

And I had a chance to use my Facom angle wrench, the perfect tool for the outer adjuster.

Left side done, too.

With that, I have done just about everything on the winter list.

You set the inside, as well - right?

Yes I did--thanks for the reminder check. And the pedal feels very firm so I will skip another round of bleeding for now.

Still thinking about the somewhat weak brake performance from last summer, I remembered to see how much flex the master cylinder shows with the pedal pushed hard. With me in the car and my wife looking in from the side, I pushed and she said "It moves!"

When I restored the floor the area around the pedal cluster looked very solid.

I pulled the splash pan off and confirmed that I could pull the MC down . The motion is mostly vertical.

I know that people have applied different devices that brace the MC against the suspension cross tube. For fun, I tried to create something new. Here's my solution, a section of 1/8 x 1.5" bar, with a short bracket welded to it. I notched the bar to fit between the trailing braces on the cross tube.

Close up of the bracket, made from a piece of 1/8 x 3/4" stock.

First installation. I know the hose clamp is a bit ghetto, but I want to see how it works. I used some 1/8" dense rubber sheet as a pad. The end of the MC sits in metal to metal contact on the new bracket.

Right end.

The MC seems much stiffer when I pulled on it, and my wife claims it did not move when I pushed hard on the brake pedal. This might work. I will test it on the road, and then see if I can refine the mounting method.

How is she running? oil leak?

I have to admit I don't know yet--but stay tuned.

I decided to add one more brace to the master cylinder, and made a sandwich of two 1/4" aluminum scrap pieces. They fit snug and will keep the MC from flexing forward.

I re-installed the splash shield. Some dirty spots hide the lumpiness.

Time to put the wheels on--got out the mounting lugs, even though those little 914 Fuchs wheels are nice and light.

My 914 is back on its own wheels for the first time since last December.

That pretty much clears the winter task list.

OK, here's the start to the driving season list. I really want to learn Tuner Studio and optimize the MegaSquirt this year.

Short lists are good

Someday I hope my list gets that short.....

Busy garage day. First I put the summer tires on my 911.

Then I put the street treads on my Suburban (saving the AT tires for the dirt).

Then I fired up the 914, let it warm up, and balanced the idle setting air flow through the L and R throttle bodies.

Last parts to install: air filters.

That's 100% of the engine bay again.

I went for a 20 minute drive and all was good. Best of all, the brakes finally feel pretty strong, even with the pads not quite bedded in again. I felt a pull to the right with hard braking.

Stopped to fill the tank on the way home.

Some other good news: I like my new oil pressure gauge. This is at about 1500 RPM. At idle when hot I saw about 10 psi. When running at speed I think it was about 40.

I almost forgot I replaced the door stays. Nice for the doo to stay open on a slight incline.

In other news, the odometer now works!