"MM54" (mm54mk2)
07/07/2016 at 22:57 • Filed to: '71Chevelle
5
2|
"MM54" (mm54mk2)
07/07/2016 at 22:57 • Filed to: '71Chevelle | 5
| 2 |
It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve been around - I recently bought a house and have been subsequently very busy. I moved this past Saturday, though, so things are settling back down. The garage is actually big enough to fit my car in and open the doors! It’s also big enough to work on another car in, which will be a plus.
Anyways, a couple weekends ago a friend and I got started on Part 2 of the three-part process of getting my ‘71 Chevelle back on the road. Part 2, in case you forget, is brakes.
The car had the factory manual drum brakes on all four wheels, which would be fine if it was still the early 70's and everyone had the same brakes. Now, though, with modern traffic/cars/brakes, they’re a bit sketchy at times. The upgrade is a power disc/drum setup, eventually disc/disc down the road when I replace the rear end with something taller geared and less open.
The upgrade itself has three parts - front disc conversion, rear drum rebuild, and all new lines (the ones on there were originals - not visibly rusty, but the ends were crusty and overall they’re in unknown shape behind the armoring and undercoat).
Removed the old fluid from the master cylinder first to minimize fluid-going-everywhere upon disconnecting... stuff. We then removed the master cylinder to improve access to the old distribution block. Interestingly, the the studs for a booster (two more below the MC studs) had nuts on them. GM could have saved pennies by leaving those off manual-brake cars!
45 years of... something... accumulated in the bottom of the MC
The rear drum assemblies were then rebuilt with new hardware (springs, clips, etc), adjusters, shoes, and wheel cylinders (one was slightly leaky, both were original Delco Moraine castings).
What some see as witchcraft, I see as mechanical beauty
This was then topped off with new drums, painted with caliper paint because nobody likes rusty drums. While the old ones probably would have been fine to re-use, they were clearly very hot a few times (with hard spots) and overall not really worth trying to save.
Also pictured: One of my favorite tools, the LFH - it’s like a BFH, but Little for use in tight spaces.
Then the surprise hard part - some of the lines. I’m bending my own lines like I’ve done many times before, but I hadn’t really accounted for the sheer pain-in-the-ass factor of the line that runs from the front to the rear. I didn’t have any flare unions on hand so it had to go in in one piece - between removing the old one in a manner that wouldn’t totally wreck it (needed the template) and getting the new one in without damaging it, my friend and I probably had a good 8 hours into this one damn line.
I also made new hard lines from the block at the axle-end of the rear flex line to the wheel cylinders, not too difficult by comparison. Then the new rear flex line went on and connected the long pain-in-the-ass line to the two wheel lines.
At this point it turned out to be 1am so that’s all we got done. It’s a far cry from the idea of doing all the brakes at once, but that long hard line, and the fact that only three flare nuts
on the whole car
would turn, kicked our collective ass. A lot of time was spent cutting old brake lines with a hacksaw blade. We also bent the handle on one of my wrenches.
Next time, though...
Everyone likes old school discs where the rotor is also the hub, right?
So anyways, it’s good to be back, hopefully I’ll get caught up with what’s been going on in Oppo the past couple weeks. I noticed Jake seems to have put a turbo on his Miata and someone was putting the roof off an MX3 on a Miata, so that’s cool. Anything else exciting going on?
!!! UNKNOWN HEADER TYPE (MULTI-LINE BREAK?) !!!
Like I already said/implied, the front brakes need to go on still (all new parts from the spindle out), I need to make the hard lines for the front, install the master cylinder, re-connect the pedal inside, mount the proportioning valve, and cut/flare all the needed lines to connect to that. Then I’ll pull the MC back off to bench bleed, reinstall, and bleed out the whole system with some tasty tasty DOT4.
Time has become scarce, as I spent last weekend moving, this coming weekend is claimed for some family matters, the next weekend (the 16th) I’ll be at the
!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
for the show/racing (anyone want to meet up?). The following week (of the 25th) I’m scheduled to be traveling for work all week so that may actually burn off both of those weekends in travel, but hopefully at least one will permit me to finish off the brakes. My original plan of having the car on the road by mid-July didn’t quite jive with buying a house and work travel.
As a bonus for making it through another drawn-out rambling post of mine, here are my new tires mounted on the wheels I picked up a while ago.
Also pictured: Handle of Lawnmower, Crack in Garage Floor
lone_liberal
> MM54
07/07/2016 at 23:14 |
|
Very nice. I’ve been debating with myself whether to redo the rear drum brakes on my 71 Camaro. The shoes look good and I don’t see any obvious leaking from the cylinders but I don’t know when they were last serviced and when they were one wheel got a finned drum and the other a smooth one. I’ve already replace the front calipers and the master cylinder so it at least stops somewhat well.
Also, I need those tires. Give ‘em up!
|
MM54
> lone_liberal
07/08/2016 at 19:30 |
|
Drum brake parts are so cheap I’d say go for it, worst case it is the same stopping as before, but you know its history now and that the parts are fresh.