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My run of bad luck with cars continues...
Last week I managed to get the Marlin on the road to the mot station and through the mot, all was well. Until on the way home (17 miles) the rear brakes were making a groaning noise. Eventually got it home and discovered the rear offside piston had leaked fluid all over the shoes in that drum. The nearside rear brake shoes were binding tight against the drum and it was were a real struggle to remove the drum. Ordered 2 rear pistons and shoes. Cleaned the ill offside drum and contents thoroughly, fitted new pistons and shoes and reassembled it all once more then bled the air out of the system. However, I found the two brakes were very uneven, the nearside was still tight so I adjusted it to be 'just free' like the offside one.
Off the axle stands, on the ground and 10yds from the garage door I realize the handbrake was very loose; I could lift it 8 clicks to the full height and the car could still move.
Back in the garage and this time I reverse it up onto ramps, chock the front wheels and get underneath... I then see that the handbrake adjuster (threaded tube with 2 x 13mm nuts either side of a plate) is screwed right to the very ‘forward’ end – meaning I can’t tighten the handbrake cable by the usual means. The next option is to undo the big bolt & welded nut which is bolted onto the handbrake assembly (there is a hole drilled through the welded nut through which the handbrake cable goes & the big 24mm bolt screws into the welded nut to hold the cable fast) and pull the cable forward maybe an inch or so and then tighten up the big bolt and then unthread the adjuster nuts further down so I can give more tension to the whole cable. Sounds simple enough … but when I undo the 24mm bolt until it’s loose; the cable doesn’t move at all through it. I built a lever action jig and pulled and pushed as much as I can but the cable will not budge. I suspect that it has become compressed so much inside the nut that it won’t come through the forward hole in the nut.
In this pic you can see the silver 24mm bolt going into the welded nut, the handbrake cable is passing through it.
Of course it really doesn’t help that the prop shaft is in the way and I can’t get my fingers there & have had to improvise with all manner of spanners and bits of wood etc. It all looks wet because I sprayed wd40 as much as I could towards the cable entrance / exit holes & left it overnight to soak through... made no difference.
I am loathe to have to remove the prop shaft not only because I’ll have to somehow jack the car up high enough and off the ramps so I can turn the wheels to get the prop shaft to rotate to allow me to get at all of the bolts but also because I’d have source and replace all 8 of the nyloc UNF nuts once I’ve identified them…
All for a handbrake cable! I can only think that the nearside brake adjuster on the rear of the backplate is the root of all my problems; by adjusting it to enable the shoes to be adequately free – it has taken all the tension out of the handbrake cable.
Is there an easy way forward that I haven’t seen here?
Last week I managed to get the Marlin on the road to the mot station and through the mot, all was well. Until on the way home (17 miles) the rear brakes were making a groaning noise. Eventually got it home and discovered the rear offside piston had leaked fluid all over the shoes in that drum. The nearside rear brake shoes were binding tight against the drum and it was were a real struggle to remove the drum. Ordered 2 rear pistons and shoes. Cleaned the ill offside drum and contents thoroughly, fitted new pistons and shoes and reassembled it all once more then bled the air out of the system. However, I found the two brakes were very uneven, the nearside was still tight so I adjusted it to be 'just free' like the offside one.
Off the axle stands, on the ground and 10yds from the garage door I realize the handbrake was very loose; I could lift it 8 clicks to the full height and the car could still move.
Back in the garage and this time I reverse it up onto ramps, chock the front wheels and get underneath... I then see that the handbrake adjuster (threaded tube with 2 x 13mm nuts either side of a plate) is screwed right to the very ‘forward’ end – meaning I can’t tighten the handbrake cable by the usual means. The next option is to undo the big bolt & welded nut which is bolted onto the handbrake assembly (there is a hole drilled through the welded nut through which the handbrake cable goes & the big 24mm bolt screws into the welded nut to hold the cable fast) and pull the cable forward maybe an inch or so and then tighten up the big bolt and then unthread the adjuster nuts further down so I can give more tension to the whole cable. Sounds simple enough … but when I undo the 24mm bolt until it’s loose; the cable doesn’t move at all through it. I built a lever action jig and pulled and pushed as much as I can but the cable will not budge. I suspect that it has become compressed so much inside the nut that it won’t come through the forward hole in the nut.
In this pic you can see the silver 24mm bolt going into the welded nut, the handbrake cable is passing through it.
Of course it really doesn’t help that the prop shaft is in the way and I can’t get my fingers there & have had to improvise with all manner of spanners and bits of wood etc. It all looks wet because I sprayed wd40 as much as I could towards the cable entrance / exit holes & left it overnight to soak through... made no difference.
I am loathe to have to remove the prop shaft not only because I’ll have to somehow jack the car up high enough and off the ramps so I can turn the wheels to get the prop shaft to rotate to allow me to get at all of the bolts but also because I’d have source and replace all 8 of the nyloc UNF nuts once I’ve identified them…
All for a handbrake cable! I can only think that the nearside brake adjuster on the rear of the backplate is the root of all my problems; by adjusting it to enable the shoes to be adequately free – it has taken all the tension out of the handbrake cable.
Is there an easy way forward that I haven’t seen here?
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