Our Bird on the Road in Mexico

[Terry Neal]

Thanks for your report Bruce. You obviously found a great shop to work
on your Bird. Be safe in your travels & keep us up to date on your
trip. Good read when it's -5 outside at noon up here.

Terry Neal
Bozeman, MT
82PT40
74FC34



birdshill123 wrote:

> Hi everyone. We are siitng in a nice RV Park about 100 feet to the
> ocean. I will post some pics tomorrow. I promise I wont make our
> trip into a blog on the Forum but I will post things that might be
> of interest to BB owners. Yesterday was a great drive. No problems.
> rBut I was worried about my brakes. I seemed to lose a lot of air
> when the brakes were applied. before we left our home in Northern
> Mexico i did the test where you hold the treadle down and see how
> how much air you lose in a minute. Was fine. This a.m. we were on
> the road just South of Culiacan. THis is about 220 km. north of
> Mazatlan. Drug capital of Mexico. If you are a fan of CSI they did
> one show where they went to this bar frequented by Sinaloa Cowboys.
> They all drive fancy pickups with thousands of dolars of chrome and
> stainless. We are in the land of these cowboys. The toll road from
> Culiacan to Mazatlan is very expensive. I entered the toll booth,
> paid my 181 pesos (about 17 bucks) and as I handed him the $ I heard
> air p--sing out from the LF wheel area. I pulled ahead and went
> under the bird. Lots of air coming from the air chamber. Culiacan is
> a major agricultural city so I knew we would be able to get repairs.
> But I would have to pay to go through the toll gates. The mgr. told
> me to drive right through and we did!! I was afraid of the chase car
> but nothing happened.
>
> We found this shop called Martinez Clutch and Brake. Great guys.
> Within 5 minutes a dirty mechanic crawled in the dirt under the
> Bird. He went and got his little wagon that had a homemade steel
> tool box and went to work. In minutes he had part of chamber in his
> hand. Put it all back together with a new diaphragm and discovered a
> cracked hose that had a small leak. Went into the shop, made A new
> hose, covered it with HD plastic loom and reinstalled. Set both
> slack adjusters and adjusted a rear valve for the Park brake. All
> the while the Mexican truck drivers were drooling over our Bird.
> They love classic vehicles!! In an hour they were done. Now comes
> the best part: In Canada most HD shops charge from $70.00 to $95.00
> an hour. Then they add in shop supplies and other misc. charges.
> Here is what I paid:
>
> exchange rate is about 10.8 pesos to the US$ Do the math.
>
> Labor: 1 hour 181 pesos (about$17.00)
>
> air hose:77 pesos
> diaphragms :108 pesos ( I wanted a spare)
>
> etc. etc.
>
> The whole bill came to $433.84 pesos about $40 US!!!
>
> Try that anywhere North of Mexico. Great mechanics who really new
> their stuff. I noticed the test bench they built to use on trailers.
> It was on wheels and had an air connection for their compressor , a
> glad hand, a treadle and an old fashioned lever style Park brake. I
> was impressed.
>
> The moral of this story is that any of us with old Birds should
> consider checking all those items for signs of age. Heck if we are
> going to change our tires every 3 years surely the brakes should be
> looked at.
>
> We are going back to that shop on our return trip and have them pull
> all the drums, check the rear service brake chambers, etc. Might
> have to leave it for a day but I have confidence in these guys and
> of course as a bonus the price is right. All the HD shops and parts
> houses are within 3 blocks. They have 7 locations in that city!!
>
> Bruce
> 1988 FC35
> La Reina Gitana
>
>



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