Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[CitroJim]

Excellent work on both car and calculator Zel

I heartily agree about brake shoe springs Is there anything more evil on a car than those?

I made a special spring hook to make the job easier when I did Daffodil's... It really helps cut the utterance of swearwords!

[Zelandeth]

Excellent work on both car and calculator Zel

I heartily agree about brake shoe springs Is there anything more evil on a car than those?

I made a special spring hook to make the job easier when I did Daffodil's... It really helps cut the utterance of swearwords!

Biggest headache with them on the Invacar is that the hubs are so large. So you can't do the usual trick of fitting them to the shoes then slotting them into place, though to be fair it's more fiddly than anything. The layout does mean there aren't any shortcuts though.

I've worked on far worse setups though. At least there aren't any Heath Robinson self adjusting mechanisms of anything to work around/fight with here.

[CitroJim]

Ahh yes, I understand your difficulty with the big hubs in the way Zel, a place where a proper spring hook will certainly help...

At least there aren't any Heath Robinson self adjusting mechanisms of anything to work around/fight with here.

That's a bonus! I've had battles aplenty with some PSA so-called self-adjusters in the past Especially those on the Pug 205, 405 and 206...

Strangely, those on the Bendix drums on Daffodil are the best I've ever encountered. Very robust cam and ratchet affairs that you can hear working on the first application of the pedal after overhaul with a satisfying series of clicks as they adjust...

Another bonus is their ability to be easily released by poking a screwdriver through a wheel stud hole and releasing the ratchet!

I well recall the manually adjusted ones on BMC cars of the 60s... I still have the special square spanner needed to adjust them...

Easily done, provided the adjusters were not seized and the squares rounded off by previous bodgers...

[mickthemaverick]

I well recall the manually adjusted ones on BMC cars of the 60s... I still have the special square spanner needed to adjust them...

Easily done, provided the adjusters were not seized and the squares rounded off by previous bodgers...

Me too Jim, I have both the standard one which looks like a ring spanner with two square holed ends and the deluxe version with mini sockets connected by mini uj's to each end of the shaft

[CitroJim]

I well recall the manually adjusted ones on BMC cars of the 60s... I still have the special square spanner needed to adjust them...

Easily done, provided the adjusters were not seized and the squares rounded off by previous bodgers...

Me too Jim, I have both the standard one which looks like a ring spanner with two square holed ends and the deluxe version with mini sockets connected by mini uj's to each end of the shaft

You had the posh one Mick! Mine's the former... I'd love a car, preferably an early Mini, I could use it on again

[Zelandeth]

The auto adjusters on the Lada drums work pretty well - though they also work as a structural integrity test for the entire braking system, brake pedal, pedal box and bulkhead. Process for use is:

1. Disengage handbrake.
2. Apply footbrake, hard.
3. No...I said press the brake hard. Like really hard.
4. You're not getting it...Use both feet and brace yourself against the back of the seat and steering wheel if you have to.

Repeat until you're absolutely positive that you're going to break something (including yourself), and assuming no hydraulic lines explode or your foot doesn't disappear through the bulkhead, you should have correctly adjusted free play in the drums. I've never actually had any issues with that system on any of the three I've had...Once I was shown by an ex-dealer mechanic the degrees of brute force I was meant to be using anyway.

[CitroJim]

That IS a serious structural test Zel

[Hell Razor5543]

The auto adjusters on the Lada drums work pretty well - though they also work as a structural integrity test for the entire braking system, brake pedal, pedal box and bulkhead. Process for use is:

1. Disengage handbrake.
2. Apply footbrake, hard.
3. No...I said press the brake hard. Like really hard.
4. You're not getting it...Use both feet and brace yourself against the back of the seat and steering wheel if you have to.

Repeat until you're absolutely positive that you're going to break something (including yourself), and assuming no hydraulic lines explode or your foot doesn't disappear through the bulkhead, you should have correctly adjusted free play in the drums. I've never actually had any issues with that system on any of the three I've had...Once I was shown by an ex-dealer mechanic the degrees of brute force I was meant to be using anyway.

And THAT is how you convert a Lada saloon into a Lada estate!

[Zelandeth]

Today the weather was *perfect* for crawling around on the ground messing around with brakes!



Before I started to reassemble the offside brake I wanted to address the fact that the shoes were really quite badly glazed.



To address this I made sure everything was wet, working upwind, and while wearing a mask gave them a bit of a scrub up.



Not perfect but a whole lot better. I really should just treat it to a full set of new brakes shoes to be fair, the ones on there came from one of the many boxes of random spares I got with KPL.

Built the brake assembly back up...



You can see there how much the wide hub really gets in the way.

Got the free play adjusted...



The system bled...



Then a quick walking pace test done in the garage. I couldn't start the engine as I'd end up asphyxiating Chris who was working in the room that backs onto the garage, but it was enough to give us a bit of a test to see how things were behaving.



Still too much free play - but I've not touched the nearside or front brakes yet, and given how useless the handbrake had become I'm certain that the nearside at the very least needs adjusting. It's immediately obvious though that when you "stamp" on the pedal that the response is a lot more positive now. The brakes before always felt quite wooden. Will be curious to see how things are once they've all been done.

The nearside wheel cylinder WILL be getting replaced, it's just going to get done at some point when it's not -2C outside. The offside one was replaced because I couldn't bleed it, the nearside one is actually working just fine and is basically being changed as a bit of future proofing. It can wait for warmer weather!

Last job for the day was to see if I could do something with the front mud guard, which as can be seen a few posts back was thoroughly mangled. Fifteen minutes bashing it with a 4lb lump hammer against a tree stump later we had this.



Which while still not pretty, will be absolutely fine once it's painted up and buried under the front body moulding.



That paint will dry to a satin hammered finish which should help hide a lot of the imperfections.

I'm not bothering to repair the original mounting point. It's an annoying, fiddly arrangement which basically requires removal of the brake master cylinder to get the guard off...So instead I'm going to fit a couple of 90 degree brackets to it and run a couple of bolts through the bulkhead.

Hopefully get the rest of the brakes cleaned up and adjusted tomorrow.

[Gibbo2286]

When working indoors with the engine running I have a long tube popped on the exhaust and rolled outside, it was part of an inflatable jack that worked off the exhaust I acquired years ago, the jack rotted away but the tube remains, rolled up in a corner for when needed like a fireman's hose.

Haven't used it for years now, nowhere indoors to work.

[CitroJim]

That's a good idea Eric I shall look to procure something similar as I often want to run up Daffodil in the garage without necessarily opening both doors wide...

[mickthemaverick]

I use a 10m length of expandable ventilation trunking, intended for extractor fans etc. Works fine for me!!

BFTW

[Hell Razor5543]

It might be worth putting a flap on the 'outside' end, so if the wind gets up the exhaust is not blown back down the tube and into the garage.

[mickthemaverick]

Correct James , I have a standard 5 slat vent cover on the end of mine which I wedge between two full 5 gallon cans.

[Zelandeth]

When she's just sitting stationary in the garage while running I usually just back up a couple of feet then wedge the old front section from the Activa on...Obviously no use if I want the car to be mobile though!

Doesn't help that the exhaust on the Invacar vents directly out the right hand side rather than out the back.

As expected the nearside brake shoes were quite glazed so were given a scrub up just as the ones on the other side were. My prediction that the adjustment was "drastically in need of attention" was also correct. I think I got a full three turns on it before we got to the point where the shoes came anywhere close to touching the drum. Beyond that it was just a case of "reassemble like yesterday" and to tweak the adjustment of the offside one so they felt even.

This has vastly improved things, there's far less dead travel in the brakes now - though it's still closer to my knees than I'd like because of the essentially lost travel as the bars are starting slightly depressed.

The paint on the mudguard has dried up pretty much as I'd hoped.





Once it's in place I think it will be perfectly presentable in the context of the overall appearance of the car.



I have now attached a bracket to it (but totally forgot to take a photo of it), so should be able to get it refitted soon. I'm probably going to leave that be until I'm finished all the work up front as it gives me a bit more room to work having it out of the way.

I think the plan for next time I'm in the garage is to see if I can get the handlebars detached to experiment with drilling a new pivot point to attach the brake cylinder clevis pin to. See if I can get back that bit of lost motion. *Hoping* that won't be too massive a mission.

To do list before the road test I think:

[] Modify brake lever pivot point to suit new master cylinder.

[] Replace the furthest forward ball joint. I've identified that's where most of the play is - you can hear and feel it going "clonk" when you shake the drag link.

[] Fit foam padding around the top fuel tank strap.

[] Refit front mud guard.

Then I think we'll be good to go.