Continuing down the list of things that need to get sorted on Tom Wilson’s white GTE, I had to get the horn to work. After sending power directly to the air compressor, I found it wasn’t responding, so I first removed the top plate to see if the motor was seized, but it was turning. The next check found one of the problems: it was missing a brush!

Behind two plastic caps are brushes that ride on the commutator and with one of them missing, this motor wasn’t going to move. I cannibalized one from a compressor in my stash of parts, but still nothing worked, so I had to dive deeper into the problem.

It was pretty obvious one of the problems was the commutator was filthy. The carbon brushes are constantly leaving residue on the commutator eventually shorting out the electrical contact.

After some light sanding, the parts were cleaned up and correct electrical contact was restored. I got the motor working, but then had to adjust the horn button on the other end of the electrical circuit. I’m happy to report, getting the horn to work can be taken off the to-do list. Now all I have to do it find a replacement brush so my other spare motor works. Anybody have a spare brush I can buy?

The fuel gauge wasn’t working, and after checking the gauge side of the circuit, I needed to check the fuel tank side. Unfortunately, access to the fuel tank sender requires removing the rear seat and rear panel. In a conversation on my Forum, Kerry Chesbro suggested the wires to the fuel tank can be reached through the access door in the trunk by the filler neck, so I decided to give it a shot. I stuck my phone camera (what did we do before we had camera phones?) inside the access door and could clearly see the sender wasn’t even plugged in! I tried to stick my arm in there, but couldn’t reach the wires, so I had no choice but to pull out the rear seats. You can just make out the little door directly above the sender.

I hate removing a freshly restored interior. There’s always risk of scratching or scuffing a new piece of leather, or breaking a piece so I have to be very careful. I fixed the wiring, and supplied a proper ground, so we should be good to go!

A new master cylinder and brake light switch arrived so I could get the brake lights to work.

I reverse bled the brake system by pushing fluid back through the calipers towards the master cylinder. With the 250 brake system, I have tried many different methods, and have found it takes a combination of bleeding to get all the air out of the system. Even after reverse bleeding, I still had to bleed the booster to clear out trapped air. There are a lot of places in this system that traps air, so after the initial bleed, I usually give the system time to settle, and bleed it some more, allowing tiny bubbles of air to collect and bleed out.