Brakes would be nice

On a drive out a few weekends ago, while trying to get past a couple of cyclists on a bend (yeah, my fault), a car came round the corner towards me. I panicked trying to get to the brake pedal and my foot got briefly caught under the pedal, pulling it up. To my horror, the pedal stayed up in the air and I had no brakes! Fortunately,  I was going slow and I was able to come to a stop using the handbrake.

When I got the pedal box opened up, I could see that the pedal had been able to travel so far the wrong way, that the rod that goes into the brake cylinder had come right out, hence no brakes.

This weekend , I finally got round to making up a basic pedal stop for the brake pedal so that I wouldn't be able to lift it up the wrong way again. It's not the greatest piece of mechanical engineering, just a piece of ally bent into a sort of U-shape and attached to the top of the brake pedal but it should do the job.

I think I am losing a bit of coolant from the temp sensor in the top of the thermostat but it's only a little and I don't want to try tighten the sensor too much because if I strip the plastic thread in the thermostat, it's going to be a pain to replace. Just means I have to top up the coolant every month or so - not too much of a hardship.

The brake judder I mentioned last time isn't the brakes - I think it's just the steering column shaking. All the bolts seem tight - I think it's just the fact it's a long length of metal which is only supported at each end which is why it vibrates under heavy braking. But I'll check with the experts on the forum...

Update: Went to a tyre place and got the wheels re-balanced - they were MILES out!! Vibration now hugely improved although not gone totally. I've ordered a dial gauge to check the discs as well.