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Slip-slid'n away...(Long, but please read on.)


Hello to you all

It was raining last Friday afternoon as I drove home during 
rush-hour. I was traveling downhill at about 35 mph in the right-hand 
lane of a dual carriageway when the BMW 540i in front of me suddenly 
braked sharply to avoid rear ending another car that had cut in front 
of it without signalling. I followed. Unfortunately I hit my brakes 
too hard and locked both rear wheels in doing so. The rear of my car 
broke away towards the left and turned the car into the curb on my 
right causing the right front wheel to connect the curb, still doing 
about 30 mph. The wheel ran against the curb for some distance and 
then the tyre burst, causing the rim to mount the curb while the rear 
of the car slewed round until the left front wheel hit the curb as 
well, violently stopping any further movement. 

The cars behind me managed to avoid hitting me and I did not hit 
anything else besides the curb.

A post-mortem examination later that evening revealed no major 
suspension damage, just some loose front axle mounting bolts and 
quite a lot of upper torsion arm play. Both were fixed without 
hassle.I had to buy a new tyre, luckely the rim was OK, and get the 
wheels aligned. No problem either.

So what does one do to fix a lockup problem? This was not the first 
time I had the rear wheels lock on me under emergency braking but I 
would like it to be the last. The condition of the various players in 
this saga is as follows:

Tyres : 165R15 Firestone R510 textiles. Approx 6mm tread depth 
across the entire tread surface.

Rear brakes : Overhauled by yours truly 500 miles ago. New shoes, new 
wheel cyl washers, wheel cylinders resleeved in stainless steel, 
rear brake drums within spec, new flexible rear hoses, new brake 
fluid. All correctly assembled, bled and adjusted. Brakes fully 
seated by now.

Rear suspension : Double-jointed rear axle, slightly lower ground 
clearance due to old age, 2 degrees negative camber and 1mm toe-in 
on either side.

Does anyone have any ideas? I am thinking of installing a pressure 
restricting valve in the rear brake line to prevent this from 
occurring again. (Poor man's ABS I suppose.) Has anyone done this 
before? Is it a good idea?

Anyway, I'm grateful that no serious damage was done to my car and 
that I lived to tell the tale! All input from you people will be 
appreciated.



Regards

Adriaan Loedolff
adriaan@norton.ctech.ac.za
'69 Variant Automatic (200 000 miles + and still cruisin' after all of these years!)


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