a couple of car-rejuvenation questions: crake cailpers and old gas

[David Pertuz]

Last weekend it suddenly occurred to me (I had taken a break from the rod
bearing job to do other things on the car, and work on my Fiat) that I did
not have to entirely remove the RHS axle to get to the one upper oil pan
bolt - all I appeared to need to do was unbolt the center support bearing
from the block and let it drop down a couple of inches, or however far it
will fall. Doy! Can someone confirm this? I'll test it the next time I have
time to do car work.

Two other things:

1) Eventually I am going to fire the car up again. The gas that is in the
car is rather old by now. The car was run once to back it out of the garage
and pull in facing nose-out before tearing it down, but otherwise the last
time the car ran the gas was fresh. Am I well-advised to drain the tank and
refill with fresh gas, or can I pour something in there (will stabilizer do
any good now?) or will I be OK just firing it up and fillin the rest of the
tank with new gas?

2)My rear brake calipers need rebuilding. I have an OE rebuild kit, and
also a spare set of calipers (I'm not sure if these need rebuilding, but I
should assume they do.) I am aware that rebuilding rears is something of a
PITA compared to doing the fronts (presumably because of the handbrake
mechanism), so getting remans at the part store is certainly easier, but
are good-quality remans still available? I'd rather rebuild the originals
(I'd strip and refinish them, too) then put remans in if there is a big
differnce in quality.

thanks,
David
Chicago
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