One of my brake ducts was apparently mounted too close to the crank pulley and subsequently has a small hole. Any ideas what to repair it with? Will high temp duct tape stay on, and if it doesn't, will it mess up the crank pulley? And also, does a 2" hole matter?
Is this one of the WMW ducts? If so you should be able to wrap some fiberglass around the hole to repair it. As to making a difference, air is like water and will seek the path of least resistance. I'd cover it up keeping as much air as possible going to the brakes.
Seal that hole for sure. You want all of that available flow going to the brakes, unless of course you have no further plans to visit the track. If Way, then fiberglass resin/cloth. If flex hose, then duct tape, or brake duct tape. Either way, make sure the duct is clean and dry before you begin the repair.
If it's plastic, you could duct tape the outside, then flow some JB Weld inside the pipe to make a hard seal on the inside of the pipe. 24 hours later, you could pull off the duct tape and you would have a hard, heat-proof (to a reasonable degree... probably better than the original plastic of the pipe) patch. On a warm day JB Weld will flow with gravity for 5-10 min after you mix it, so you will have a bit of time to get the epoxy down the inside of the pipe and to rotate the pipe to distribute the JB Weld to cover the entire hole (plus some around the edge of the hole for a good bonding surface). Be sure to clean the pipe inside and out around the hole to ensure a good bond. I'd bet that this would work well for fiberglass as well, if you don't want to mess with glassing in the patch. If duct tape can't fix it, JB Weld can. I can only imagine what kind of excellent solution a combination of the 2 would provide!
another way to go... some al sheet, or plastic, and pop rivits. It's not high stress, so any of the above will work. I'd use whatever is easiet to get my hands on. Matt
To clarify, my brake ducts aren't fiberglass, they're flexible high temperature hose from Sneed's. One of the internal wire hoops has been worn through, and the duct has a 2" vertical hole, almost like a jagged slice. I'll try duct tape, but it's gonna be a challenge to get these suckers completely clean. I'll take a picture tonight. Thanks for the ideas.
See if Sneeds... will send you a couple inches of tube. Put it inside what you have to cover the hole. Get creative with fastening.... Or see what they'd charge for just some duct tubing, or check places like Summit Racing... Matt
Good idea on the duct hose heli coil. The hose or duct is the most expensive part of the kit. How much do you get in the Sneed kit, is it 8' or 10', if 10' then you should have a little extra as it should only take 4' or less per side. Otherwise, clean that hose as best as possible and duct tape that sucker up. Wrap it around the duct maybe 4 or 5 complete revolutions and end the tape on top of itself as it is clean.
I think... this is acommon repair. I bought a box of used brake ducting (hose type) from some Nascar team on eBay. Had tons of the stuff in lots of sizes. Most of the pieces had duct tape on them! Never used the stuff and threw it all out. Matt
Ooh, good call. I do have a little extra left over that I'd completely forgotten about, maybe a 3" section.
Here's a picture of the hole, which I think was actually caused by one of the zip ties I used to secure the ducting to the frame. I washed the duct with some diluted Simple Green and let it dry. Turns out duct tape is actually fantastic for ducts. It felt like the duct tape stuck really well to the surface and reinforced it. The thickness of the tape is about what the thickness of the duct is, so I used the tape to reinforce any stress areas. I didn't get any pictures of the duct reinstalled, but I didn't see any rubbing areas and it seemed to be locked down pretty tight. The passenger side is definitely harder to do because the crank pulley is much closer to the wheel well on that side. You have to stretch the duct between the vertical frame member inside the wheel and the black plastic radiator support, but you want slack, if not excess length, from the radiator support to the fog light bumper hole and from the vertical frame member to the rotor bracket. The duct should be pressed up against the fog light bumper hole, and it needs the extra length near the rotor bracket to allow full steering motion. I wish I'd remembered to take a picture. It's much easier to see than do, and it helps to have the car jacked up really high so you can examine all the angles.
Well, I will be installing my ducts tonight, after having finally finished the duct outlet at the rotor. I will try to secure so as to not have a repair like this in the future, but since I will be using zip-ties as well....... maybe a repair is inevitable. Any pics of the plastic you had to cut behind the bumper to get the duct wiggled around and properly behind the fog light hole? Maybe it is obvious once the bumper cover is off.
Ben should have pics. I did the cutting. He's a brave man. My air powered bodysaw cut through the modular front end like buttah. You have to remove a pretty sizeable chunk to make the path for the hose... but it's a chunk that seems to have no significant role in life. If it does, nobody tell Ben.
Why not wrap/reinforce the duct with tape before using the wire ties? I used a foil heat resistant tape to wrap the duct and then where I used stainless steel wire ties I wrapped the duct with a felt material.
Look in my garage pics -- RonsMinnie's Garage :: M!nn!e Click on the garage image and it will enlarge. Nathan is going to have tell - teach me how to link to the full size pic.
I may be brave, but Paul has some crazy tools and knows how to use them. I know tools, and Paul's a big... I mean, Paul's got a big collection. :aureola: Driver's side is shown below. The radiator support, aka the modular front end, is a 1/8" black plastic piece that sits behind the aluminum bumper and holds the fog lights and radiator. We cut off the bracket that holds the wheel speed and brake sensor connectors. On the passenger's side, there's less room to route the duct, so we drilled a hole in the radiator support to hang a zip tie. There's no reason to cut out the fog light holes. The cutting is necessary to allow the duct to turn towards the engine earlier and avoid the wheel.
That's an excellent pic... definately worth more than 1,000 words. I especially like how you left the edges raw where you removed plastic, just so we could see exactly where you trimmed! Thanks!