Bruce the FWD

[1300dolly]

you should use the palm of you hand with finger upwards to change 2-1, 4-3 or 4-1

What's that all about Justyn, my fingers are always down?

Im probably explaining it badly to change from 2-1 you should be pushing the gearlever away from you using the palm of you hand so your hand should be pointing up, if you fingers are down then you are gripping the knob (in thoery)! I trying to find my drivers manual that has pictures, dont laugh too much its the hampshire police advance drivers handbook and they think you need pictures

[JPB]

the palm would knock it off

Yep, pretty much the story of most of my Friday nights too.


Enough of this knob abuse though. Paul, that car would have been dead or in a large pile of separate bits long ago were it not for your marvellous improvisational skills.
Good on you!

[Oli_88]

Thumb down for 1st and 2nd, thumb up for 3rd and 4th...
Still, you'd be buggered if you had lift lock on reverse and that happened!

Agree with JPB too, nice one Paul.

[Pauldaf44]

Okie dokie Bruce is back from his MOT and its a fail.

10 fails 2 adivsorys. Sounds bad but most of it is simple and easy to fix. Tester commented on how good the car is in general

heres the list

001 Offside rear brake pipe excessively corroded

002 Nearside rear brake pipe excessively corroded

003 Centre rear brake pipe excessively corroded

004 Parking brake lever has no reserve travel

005 Offside rear parking brake lever, pawl mechanism pivots or their associated mountings are insecure

006 Offside lower suspension arm has excessive play in a ball joint

007 Offside front steering arm has relative movement at its fixings

008 Offside front (front of) tie bar/rod has excessive play in a pin/bush (the bush has given up the ghost)

009 Parking brake effieciency below requirements (12%)

010 Front brakes imbalanced (43%)

Advisories

001 Battery insecure

002 All front bushings on suspension mounts show sign of wear (read heavily perished!!)

Looks like ive got work to do and yay no Rust!!

[Pauldaf44]

Today has seen some work repaired and now I cant do a thing more untill the spares arrive. But we have removed some of the fails

005 Offside rear parking brake lever, pawl mechanism pivots or their associated mountings are insecure

Well I disconected the handbrake from the lever on the drum and did up the lock nut that had come undone. Then thought theres some adjustment available here and as the design of the cable. Rear cable goes over a pulley connected to the front cable shortening one side should not effect brake balance. So that I did. After adjusting 4 turns up and doing the lock nut up tight. A trip to Gwili Tractors (yep they seem to be the best place for little bits and bobs for this car) I came back with a box of assorted tension springs. The right size was found, all reconnected and the mechanism sits nice and solid again

Whilst I was there I picked up some UNF brake fixings as if im changing the pipes I may as well change those as well and another can of

which really is excellent stuff as not only does it penertrate but it freeze cracks the rust away by instant cooling to -40. Really good stuff.

004 Parking brake lever has no reserve travel

All that work has the nice side effect in that there is now reserve travel in the parking brake lever. I think a bit more could be gained by more adjustment off the offside shoes so that will be done and I also think they may be suffering a small amount of fluid contamination so will be getting boiled when I do the brake lines and check the slave.

009 Parking brake effieciency below requirements (12%)

I think this should now be ok although I have no way of telling for sure but the slack has been taken out of the hand brake cable and it does feel more effective.

[Pauldaf44]

Those who read my DAF thread will know that this car thought me today. Anyway heres a story.

I set about rebuilding the lower ball joint and rebushing the drivers side front suspension today. 3 hours of hammering and the lower ball joint still wouldn't yield so I left it and decided to move on to other jobs
So the progress I did have.

I have had a bit of a suspension squeek and I think ive found why. I think this bush really had died!

That should have been the bottom shockaborber mounting bush and im sure there should have been rubber all the way round it ;D
I also removed the lower wishbone main bush which was more than a little tired

However I cant get the new polybush into position as its much harder than the original and has no give in it
I then set about replacing the upper wishbone bushes which thankfully pressed in easier although the old ones where fun to get out!

The last job was to replace the bushes on the front tie bar which where nice and easy. New ones fitted and bolted in place

and lastly a photo too show all the mega mashed suspension bushes together and im sure the car will feel a LOT better

Paul

[Spunkymonkey]

Plenty of life left in those ones you removed, Paul! Just need to find the right tester - the guy who MOTd Isabel before we got her wouldn't even have advised any of them

[Pauldaf44]

More work was done yesterday although no pics as I forgot the camera. A brief summary and pics later today as I will be working on it this afternoon.

1st job was to reseal the brake master I know its been done before but I felt that the imbalance in the front brakes was probably a slight leak. So master resealed and refitted. 4 way valve removed and soaking in brake cleaner. Then I moved on to the back end, I thought the best way of checking my handbrake effiency was to jack the car up with the hand brake on and then to try and crack the wheelnuts. Worked on nearside but not offside so I decided to remove the drum and have a look. The mechanicals all looked good but there was a lot of greasy gunge all over the inside of the drum and shoes. Not a good sign. So I carried on investigating and pealed back the dust cover on the wheel cylinder which promptly disintergrated but revealed dampness. Ok that will be a slave reseal needed then and boiling the brake shoes to remove contamination should hopefully get the hand brake effiency up. Im also sure that the wheel cylinder should have 2 dust covers and one was missing. That would explain the seals going. The last job I did was to remove the rear solid hoses which I will take to college on tuesday and make up some new ones. We are getting there only a ball joint and steering arm left to tackle

[1300dolly]

How would a slight leak in the M/C cause an imbalance on the front brakes?
And boiling brake shoes?

[Pauldaf44]

Im not sure but im going through the whole braking system trying to find any faults. Anything that looks suspect is being repaired I would think that the 4 way valve is more likely at fault though.

As for boiling brake shoes it purges fluid contamination from the linings and is a trick that they taught us at college. It sort of "fluffs" the surface for want of a better word so that they give more friction.

[JPB]

Im not sure but im going through the whole braking system trying to find any faults. Anything that looks suspect is being repaired I would think that the 4 way valve is more likely at fault though.

The 4-way thing isn't a valve, it's simply a union and cannot affect fluid pressure. You've resealed the master previously have you not? Learn from this please and replace it not just for your safety but for that of other road users & pedestrians.

As for boiling brake shoes it purges fluid contamination from the linings and is a trick that they taught us at college. It sort of "fluffs" the surface for want of a better word so that they give more friction.

Afraid that your tutor is negligent if that's the sort of half-arsed advice they're handing out! Contaminated shoes can, depending on the depth of the contamination, start to work again though with reduced efficiency. Boiling them in that way softens the linings, melts out the resin that holds them together and vastly increases the risk of their breaking up and coming off the shoes to which they're attached which will cause far more trouble than you have with the brakes to start with.
Paul, please fit new cylinders, please don't attempt to reuse contaminated shoes and above all else; question your tutor about why their "advice" is given with no regard for their students' and others' safety.

My HOD would slap me senseless - and with good reason - if she thought that I'd suggested to a student that they should bodge brake repairs.

[Pauldaf44]

Result just found a pair of rear cylinders on the bay which are to be fitted.

JPB that reseal yesterday on the master looked like it was probably unnesesary as I couldn't see any sign of leaks but as I have no idea what is causing the front brake imbalance im kind of clutching at straws and rebuilding everything in sight. That way at least I will fix the problem some how

[JPB]

Front brake imbalance is most likely to have been caused by a fault with a calliper or a hose that's starting to collapse and act as a valve on that side.

[Spunkymonkey]

Seeing as these have single circuit brakes there's no was the master cylinder can affect brake balance because it sends all the pressure out through a single hole to all 4 wheels - so each wheel must get the same unless there's a pipe problem between the master and any given wheel.

Possible causes for front imbalance on these are (roughly in order of likelihood):

Calliper. They're single cylinder sliding ones on these so check they're both sliding freely as well as making sure the pistons are free & seals are good. Uneven pad wear is a good but not infallible indicator of sticky callipers.

Pads contaminated or badly worn on one side (in which case carefully check the calliper for why they're contaminated or unevenly worn!)

Brake pipe or hose blockage.

Obviously, you should start the investigation around the wheel that has the lower reading because there are very few faults that will increase braking effort at a wheel!

[Pauldaf44]

Ok more work done today and I think ive found my brake imbalance. No leaks from callipers and good front hoses. The problem is with the disc itself.

This is the offside front disc which has good brake effort

That looks the same on both sides and is not scored and has plenty of pad left on both sides. All looks in order

This is the nearside front disc and the observant amongst you may notice a rim of rusty and not polished disc. That must mean that the pad isn't making contact there.

The first thing I did then was to remove the pads. Plenty of meat left on both but definate wear ridges
I decided that I needed to see the other side of the disc as well and as that will need to come off the car anyway I removed the calliper assembly. Both pistons moving freely although one pad had welded itself to the calliper (body not the piston)
This is what I saw on the other side of the disc. Oh yeah that pads really doing nothing!!

I set about trying to remove the hub and got nowhere its going to need a puller.

But have what looks like a solution to the problem. Farmer Brian of the WWDC is a blacksmith and has an engineers lathe and milling machine. My plan is to use that to skim the discs and I will then attack the pads with some sandpaper to level them off. That should hopefully sort it.

On a side note whenever you do one job you find another

That can wait untill after the MOT as the tester cannot see it with the wheel in place. It will be fixed but theres a tight time constraint cause I want my free retest

Paul