Dear "List"
I will appreciate any assistance on my problem which I have been chasing
since I took my roadster to a local garage for servicing on May 1st.
My rear brakes are OOC. In 35 years and 240,000 miles, rear brakes have
presented me with no previous problems. I've installed new shoes three
previous times and have adjusted them from time to time, as needed..
(I will try to abbreviate this as much as possible, but it will be hard
to do so since so much has transpired since the problem appeared.)
The present situation:
-When I start to drive, pedal "feels good" with an inch or so of
travel, before braking starts. The car will roll freely down hill in
neutral.
-The right rear brake starts "dragging" after driving about 2-3 miles.
The brake pedal becomes very hard with essentially no travel. If I
continue to try to drive it (like to get back to my garage) the drag
becomes so much that I can move the car only in 1st gear. (Yesterday, I
had to abandon the car at the foot of a steep grade, two blocks away
from my home.) After sitting for ~an hour, the situation returns to the
"initial condition". Like, it charged up that incline, allowing me to
get back to my garage. At the time I had abandoned the car, the right
rear hub was quite hot.
-On today's attempt, I had backed off the adjuster an additional three
"notches", and approached the house from "downhill" so that the car
arrived in the "dragging" condition. I immediately put the rear end on
jack stands and removed the right rear wheel. I found that I couldn't
rotate the drum by hand, and started backing off the adjuster, one notch
at a time. I found that even with the adjuster all the way back, I
still couldn't rotate it. I had to "coax" off the drum, wedging
screwdrivers between the hub and the drum to get it off. After about a
half hour, the drum slipped easily over the studs and shoes, into place
and turned freely.
-The car is still on jack stands. I've run out of ideas.
How I got to this point:
I have gotten to the point, that arthritis causes things I've always
done in servicing/repairing the car to become much more difficult and
painful. I decided to take the car in to a garage who had done good work
for me in the past (in installing a stock exhaust system) for a number
of service items: lube, oil change, tranny and differential drain and
refill, replacement of brake light switch, and front end alignment.
..And I asked that they see if they could adjust the parking brake so
that it "would hold".
My brakes were working satisfactorily at that time, and as I said at the
beginning - I'd never had any problem with rear brakes. Lots of
problems in the past with the fronts, but...
When I picked the car up and drove it home, I noticed the hill on the
way that I get above 50 mph on (pedal to the metal) that I was getting
only about 40 mph. Wondered about that. The next day, in driving to
the beach, I started noting an increasing drag such that the car would
only proceed in first gear after I had gone about 4 miles. Looking for
a tow truck or a police car (don't have a cell), after quite some time
and no luck, I decided to try it again, and it moved! ...and I was able
to limp home. It was Friday afternoon and the garage wouldn't be open
again 'till Monday.
So, I decided to get my arthritic body "down and under", to try to find
out what was going on. I couldn't find the right rear adjusting screw
(by feel) where it was supposed to be, and my first thought was, "that
it had been sheared off". I later discovered that it had been "cranked
in" so far that only about 1/8" of the square portion protruded. I was
able to a 1/4 inch drive socket to be able to back it out. Thought I
had solved the problem.
Tried again for the beach on Sunday, and ran into the same problem, just
a little further down the highway. This time (Sunday) I found a
business parking lot empty where I could jack it up, remove the wheel,
and try to figure out "WTF"... I concluded it might be caused by the
parking brake, and removed the clevis pin at that right rear wheel. I
was able to drive it home with no problem. Thought that had solved the
problem, but actually, it was just the time involved that did it, as I
later learned.
Took it to the garage on Monday, and the lead person concluded that I
needed an overhaul to the rear brakes, and that the problem was that the
bearing grease seal needed replacement, because it was allowing grease
to leak out and cause the linings to swell, thereby causing the
binding. Didn't make any sense to me, since it would be the converse
since the grease is a lubricant, and anyhow, there's no way it could
permeate those hard linings!!
With those feelings, I decided to do the overhaul, myself no matter how
much it hurt ;-). Ordered new wheel cylinders and shoes (but no grease
seal!), and with very helpful e-mail assistance from Tom Hendricksen,
and had that accomplished within three days of receipt of parts.
I was sorely disappointed that my experience with my new rear brakes was
the same as I had been having with the originals. In fact, the binding
may be even occurring sooner because of the thicker linings.
Help!!
Dave
'68 1600
Kailua-Kona
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